The procurement process has been completed for a replacement bridge after Rakaiatai Bridge was washed away by Cyclone Gabrielle. A contractor has been confirmed for the design and build and detailed design is underway. Construction is expected to start in October.

Heavy earthmoving equipment has been busy on Weber Road at the 16km mark, moving close to 30,000 cubic metres of earth to remedy a series of large dropouts and slips caused by Cyclone Gabrielle. Erosion and sediment controls have been installed and power poles realigned. The earthworks involve cutting into the hill to move the road to firmer ground and easing the corner to make it safer. Over the coming weeks, earth will continue to be moved followed by the installation of new culverts and pavement construction. Work at this site will continue as long as the ground conditions are dry and the site will shut down over winter, with final pavement construction earmarked for September/October. Stop/go will continue through May.

On River Road at Ākitio, a road realignment is underway to repair cyclone damage. Large earthworks have been completed on the steep upslopes to allow the road to be moved away from a drop-out that took out half the road. Pavement
construction is scheduled to start in the coming weeks.

Work continues on the ‘medium complexity’ sites across the district, with a contractor establishing on Mangahei Road to start the repair of multiple drop-outs. This will continue over the next two months with ‘brush willow wall’ retaining structures. Rather than building ridged structures in easily erodible soils, these ‘living-walls’ use the root systems of small willows to hold the soils together. The benefit is that if any movement occurs, the roots reopen and the wall regenerates.

Work is expected to start in the next month on Ormondville Te-Uri Road, where a number of retaining walls will be built. One of these will be timber and the others will be brush willow walls.

At Otanga Road, there’s been additional geo-technical testing upstream of the damaged box culvert, to determine if the soils in this location are more stable. The results of the testing have confirmed the firm ground is 4 metres shallower than where the culvert is. This presents an opportunity to improve the economic viability of the project. Tararua Alliance is engaging bridging contractors to develop concept designs for the site to present to NZTA Waka Kotahi for funding approval. A proposal for this site is expected by the end of June.