January road repair costs in Tararua District over $2m

A slump on Route 52 in January. Photo / Facebook

The costs of repairs to Tararua District’s roads after ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale and continued bad weather in January could be around $2.8 million, the Infrastructure, Climate Change and Emergency Management Committee was told.

There were 131 faults across the district’s roading networks, according to the report by Tararua District Council infrastructure manager Chris Chapman.

Chris Chapman provided a report on the damage caused by weather events in January. Photo / NZME

In his report he said the start of the year had followed “a similar theme” to 2022.

January’s weather event brought heavy rainfall in the Ruahine Ranges and in the northeast of the district.

Communities and roads around Te Uri, Weber and Waitahora areas were the most affected, Chapman reported.

Some roads were temporarily closed, as well as Ferry Reserve and Mangatainoka Reserve.

Chapman’s report said that anecdotal reports from some local farmers were that they had more than 300mm of rain during the week of January 9.

The majority of damage caused in the northeastern part of the district occurred on the section of Route 52 between Weber and Wimbledon, Te Uri Rd, Speedy Rd and Otanga Rd.

The full cost of repairs was still to be finalised so an emergency works application could be submitted to Waka Kotahi.

Water supply networks in the Tararua District were stable. Photo / NZME

Chapman reported water supply networks to be stable over the holiday period.

Regular rain was supporting the networks to meet demand, reducing the need for water restrictions.

However, it was still expected that some form of water restrictions would be required in some of the towns over the summer period.

Two further roads have since been closed in the district.

Troup Rd in Woodville was closed on Tuesday due to deteriorating condition of the road, causing it to be hazardous to light vehicles.

Repairs were expected to begin today with plans to open the road on Friday.

Coast Rd has also been closed due to hill subsidence and site assessments have been done to look into how to stabilise it.