Kaitāia is getting a big spring clean this week for the reopening on the Mangamukas, and business leaders are urging the community to get behind the efforts.
The Far Far North is getting an early Christmas present with the long-awaited reopening of State Highway One over Mangamuka Gorge locked in for December 20.
The road has been closed twice in recent years. The 13km stretch of highway was wiped out by a series of 15 slips in a major storm in August 2022, just over a year after the highway reopened following a 12-month closure. Repair work had been under way for less than six months when a storm in April last year resulted in a further 20 slips – some of them massive – that covered 1.3km and required repairs.
Then heavy rain on June 19 and 20 threatened to further delay the opening with a massive slip falling down the hill. The two-year job to fully fix SH1 over the gorge has been so extensive and complex that an extra $60 million to finish it was allocated in May’s Budget. That took the total cost to $160m.
Kaitāia Business Association (KBA) is calling on all businesses, organisations and community groups in and around the town centre to grab a broom, a hose and a rubbish sack and help tidy up the town centre ready for the reopening of the Mangamuka Gorge, at the Kaitāia Town Square from 10am on November 15, with clean-up efforts going on throughout the week leading up to Friday’s big clean-up.