Consent application for SH2 Waikare realignment lodged with HBRC

An image of the new bridge across the Waikare Gorge, part of a $250m plan to bypass the gorge with 3.9km of new highway and a 160m long viaduct.Picture supplied

by Doug Laing

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little is hoping the long-awaited State Highway 2 Waikare Realignment between Napier and Wairoa will go ahead without a hitch after resource consent was lodged with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

The consent application from NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi was publicly notified on February 3 and submissions close on March 4.

The regional council reported that, by Friday morning, no submissions had been received.

The community of Putorino was consulted in the early stages of planning. Putorino is at the Napier-Wairoa road mid-point and is landmarked by the Waikare Hotel which closed five years ago and which will be bypassed by the realignment.

Mr Little said he was unaware of any opposition to the new road. As long as the landowners have been “kept in the loop” there should be no difficulties, he said. “It’s got to happen.”

The deviation, effectively bypassing the troublesome Waikare Gorge, has long been regarded as the next big step on the nearly 120 kilometres of the Napier-Wairoa road since the opening of the Matahorua Gorge Realignment in 2011, with 3.1km of new highway and new 137m viaduct across the gorge. But it has become a more urgent project since the Waikare River bridge was destroyed by Cyclone Gabrielle. A temporary Bailey bridge was installed in May, 90 days after the cyclone swept through.

Estimated to cost about $250 million, the realignment comprises 3.9km of new highway and a 160m bridge — one of the highest in New Zealand at 60m above the river, about 10m higher than the Mohaka bridge on State Highway 5.

Other bridges, culverts, underpasses, constructed wetlands, wetland restoration and stream restoration are included.

The consent sought is for the construction, maintenance and improvement of the proposed state highway and associated infrastructure. It is forecast that the realignment could be in use in 2027, although the devastation caused by the cyclone a year ago, and by ongoing weather events, has sparked calls for even more urgent work on the road, including Devil’s Elbow to the south of the realignment.