A team of volunteer firefighters from Tamatea Rural Fire Brigade banded together to get the cycleway back in good condition.
A team of volunteer firefighters from Tamatea Rural Fire Brigade banded together to get the cycleway back in good condition.
A group of eight volunteer firefighters from the Tamatea Rural Fire Brigade have put away the hoses and taken up brooms, shovels and leaf blowers to clean up the cycleway between Waipukurau and Waipawa of debris left over from Cyclone Gabrielle.
Deputy controller John Carter says the cycleway had been covered in debris since the flood and needed attention.
“The water came right across the road, leaving around 70ml of chip. One guy goes on his mobility scooter from Waipukurau to Waipawa so that’s no good.”
John says it’s also dangerous for bikes.
“At the Waipukurau end there’s also no barrier, so the cars flick stones onto the path.”
Brigade member Tony Kuklinsky had approached the council and the mayor before the cyclone about debris on the cycleway but were told it wasn’t their responsibility, as the cycleways are a Waka Kotahi asset.
Central Hawke’s Bay District Council chief executive Doug Tate says, “Right now, our priority response across our roading network is to restore at least single-lane access to our isolated communities.”
Tony also got in touch with a representative at Rotary Waipukurau and learned that the Rotary pathway ends where the limestone ends.
With many of the community involved with the post-cyclone cleanup, Tony brought the subject up at a brigade practice, suggesting the Tamatea Rural Fire team clean up the cycleway and return it to community use, instead of waiting for Waka Kotahi.
The team was keen, and John Carter organised a crew to do the job.
John says his team cleaned 4.3km of the cycleway from the weighbridge to the stopbank at the end of Ford Rd, which took about an hour and a half.
Volunteer firefighters got busy to clean the path after the cyclone.
“There were plenty of younger ones who got stuck in. We took four batteries, so the leaf blowers lasted the journey.”
John says he and Don, who are both keen cyclists, will keep an eye on the track “and clean the bits down Ford Rd”.
“We cycle that track regularly so we’ll do anywhere that needs it. At the far end of what we call the Waipukurau strait where the road is tar-sealed up to the track, cars flick the stones onto the track. We try to blow them off the road away from the cycleway.”
