No smooth road to Rocket Lab's new Mahia launch pad

The road out to Mahia is already fragile, and down to one lane in some areas. Photo / Warren Buckland

A Mahia homeowner who has been watching the road to Rocket Lab crumble into the sea says the multi-national company should be doing more to help the infrastructure its trucks are travelling on each day.

But Rocket Lab says its trucks are causing minimal impact and it already helps fund roading infrastructure on the Mahia Peninsula.

The US-based innovators in December announced plans to build a second launch pad at the Mahia site and construction has since begun.

A spokesperson for Rocket Lab said construction work at present involved stockpiling metal for the concrete launch pad base.

Construction work is limited to just two trucks making two runs a day along Mahia East Coast Rd, the company said.

Mahia homeowner Jeff Belli-Slack said the trucks were "thundering up and down the road", the only way in and out for the small number who live on it.

He said it was not a case of "not in my backyard" and he supported Rocket Lab being in the community, but he wanted the company to do more to support the public infrastructure it relies on.

He said the roads were designed for local and agricultural traffic, not large trucks carrying construction materials, and were essentially dirt tracks covered in asphalt.

"There is only one road in and one road out.

'When they've destroyed it, we're all stuffed, including them," he said.

Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 manager Chuck Dowdell said both the Hawke's Bay Regional Council and the Wairoa District Council, which manages Mahia East Coast Rd, had provided resource consent for the construction of Pad B.

"Preparatory work for the pad's construction is being carried out by local Wairoa business Quality Roading and Services, which also manages routine maintenance of Mahia East Coast Rd.

"An approved traffic management plan is in place during the construction period."

The same section of the road, in May 2019. Photo / Warren Buckland

He said since 2016, the company had invested in maintaining sections of the road, although the company said the amount it had invested was commercially sensitive information.

He said the company wanted to see more public money spent maintaining the infrastructure.

"It's no secret the road network in Tairāwhiti has suffered from historical under-investment and recurring extreme weather events.

"We anticipate that these factors will lead to more public investment in Mahia roads in 2020."

Mayor of Wairoa, Craig Little, said he understood frustrations in the community.

He said has been lobbying central government around making improvements to the road.

"Hopefully in the near future there will be some good news stories about that road."