Spring roading round-up from the Tararua Alliance; Route 52, River Road and Victoria Avenue
29 October 2024
With summer on the way the Tararua Alliance roading team is working on pre-seal repairs around the district before the sealing season kicks off in November. The Cyclone Gabrielle roading rebuild continues at pace with multiple sites under construction.
There are two upcoming road closures to keep in mind if you’re heading out to the coast or the Weber area. A section of Route 52 between Weber and Ti Tree Point will be closed for two days for emergency works over the weekend of Saturday 2 November starting at 7am and going through to Sunday 3 November at 4pm. The detour route is Tahuokaretu Road to Birch Road East and onto Franklin Road or continue on Birch Road back to Route 52.
The worksite is 50m long at the ‘airstrip’ about 4 kms from the Weber intersection. This section of road has had significant drainage problems with an underground spring discovered 11m below the road’s surface. Tararua Alliance is installing deep interceptor drains at the base of the hillside, removing saturated soils and installing gravel drainage blankets across the road formation to divert large volumes of water away from the site. This will allow the site to dry back and stabilise the road.
Next month, River Road Ākitio will be closed for repairs to the bridge A-071 near Glenora Road from Sunday 10 November to Thursday 5 December, between the hours of 6.30pm-2.30am (detour Coast Road). This work is happening on a Sunday-Thursday timetable to avoid disruption for people accessing the beach at the weekend. River Road will be open during the day outside of the closure hours.
Dannevirke residents will be pleased to hear the road cones at the Victoria Avenue bridge will soon be gone as a permanent solution is being put in place over the coming weeks. The cones were put up by Tararua Alliance to create a safe walking zone for pedestrians using the lime path constructed by a community group, while options for a safe and cost effective solution for the bridge connection were developed.
The problem was that the lime path stops before the bridge and there was no safe pedestrian connection over the bridge, which is currently two lanes, and below the minimum design width for two cars and a pedestrian footpath.
Last month Council approved an option that will see the bridge turned into a single lane, priority give-way bridge with line marking to permanently designate a pedestrian area, along with new pavement connecting the bridge to the footpath on the town side. Preparatory work has started and the permanent solution is expected to be completed in November. Below is an illustration of what the new set-up will look like.