The road through Waiohiki and Redclyffe Bridge was never consciously designed as an arterial route, writes Denis O'Reilly. Photo / NZME
Opinion:
Sunday, July 2 saw the passing of the 89th anniversary of opening of the Redclyffe Bridge over the Tutaekuri River at Waiohiki.
It was not a big event. My wife Taape Tareha and I celebrated on site with a gourmet hotdog from Dave Hobson’s stall at the Sunday Farmers’ Market.
The Redclyffe bridge is under repair, but the exact future purpose is unclear – at least to me. Last week, in my role as chairman of the Waiohiki Community Charitable Trust, I had an email korero with Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst about the Redclyffe Bridge. A journo had contacted me, having heard that there is some local opposition to the repair and reopening of the bridge. Yes, there is.
There has been frustration expressed by some citizens of the broader Hawke’s Bay community at the delays in traffic due to the bottlenecks at Clive and at the Napier Hastings Expressway. That’s a consequence of the cyclonic disaster. It has uprooted the lives of those most affected.
Some continue to be traumatised daily. In my view being stuck in a traffic jam hardly counts. I respect that people in Napier and Hastings, otherwise unaffected by the flooding, may feel stranded and dislocated from schools and work and so forth. However, they cannot assume that their present annoyances and difficulties should be solved by visiting upon the residents of Waiohiki continuous weekday traffic from approximately 6am to 10am and then again from 4pm until 6pm.
Waiohiki is essentially a series of papakainga. The road through Waiohiki and the bridge over the Tutaekuri developed over time. It was never consciously designed as an arterial route. It does not meet roading design principles including traffic safety, volume, speed, and the environment. I am still unconvinced over the HDC’s complete authority over the road as many of the whānau landblocks run from the Tutaekuri across the road into the Napier golf links.
I have previously raised this matter with HDC officials with no clear answer. I suspect that in some parts we are in a situation like that at Waipuka/Ocean Beach where the road runs across Māori title land. Anyway, park that for the moment – although HDC will inevitably have to stump up with evidence of their authority.
The disaster of Gabrielle has brought an opportunity to rethink. During the flooding Waiohiki was unprotected by stopbanks. Taradale and Napier were – in fact these stopbanks had just been reinforced prior to the cyclonic event. The people at Waiohiki suffered impacts to spare others. Time for quid pro quo. Those citizens of either city troubled by commuting might be encouraged to find alternative solutions to places of schooling and employment, at least as an interim measure until our roading infrastructure is fit for purpose and fit for community.
Let’s look for solutions. One option would be to have a multiple lane bridge at Brookfields. This would then enable traffic off Pakowhai Rd to have easy and direct access to Napier city and the eastern and southern suburbs. Similarly, a flyover bridge coming off Links Rd to the foot of Otatara would resolve the terrible traffic jam at the intersection with State Highway 50 caused by right turning traffic heading to Taradale and would relieve the kainga at Waiohiki of the twice daily traffic blitz. Clearly huge money is currently being expended on some envisaged remedy, but what is it, and where is the community dialogue?
If a flyover option off Links Rd were applied then the Redclyffe Bridge could be closed to vehicular traffic and used for cycling and walking, with the ability to have vehicular access in emergencies.
There may be an interim solution. Traffic management devices could be applied with the introduction of chicanes to slow down the traffic through Waiohiki and to dissuade heavy vehicles from the route.
Returning to what we had previously is not an option. When my children were young there was no footbridge. On their way to school our kids had to shuffle their way along the narrow footing of the guard rails whilst traffic whizzed past. The authorities cared not a jot.
Eventually, we took direct action before and after school and began to block the road whilst we ushered the children across, much like a very extended pedestrian crossing. This led to the fitting of a footbridge. Direct action is always an option. A better approach is community dialogue leading to a big-picture long-term solution.
We residents of Waiohiki are constituents of HDC. We pay rates but receive very little for them in the form of services and infrastructure comparative to other citizens. So be it. The trade-off for Tangata Tiriti residents is the ability to live in a peri-urban environment. For the mana whenua, it is the ability to maintain their ahi kaa on traditional lands.
He waka eke noa, we are in this together.
* Denis O’Reilly is chairman of Waiohiki Community Charitable Trust and a life member of Black Power.