Hawke's Bay Today reporter Doug Laing takes a closer look at the state of the Napier-Taupō highway on its first day open to the public since Cyclone Gabrielle. Video/Warren Buckland
The cheery smile and wave of an Auckland office worker seconded to the Napier-Taupō highway seemed to be part of the strategy as the highway re-opened to general public on Monday – five weeks after being closed by Cyclone Gabrielle.
It was a perfect early autumn morning, not a cloud in the sky, with grandmum Tracy Neho completing the picture as if her stop/go sign actually read: “Welcome to Sunny Hawke’s Bay.”
“I’m loving it,” said Neho, who was helping manage one-way traffic on a sealed lane built around a full-width highway drop-out between Te Pōhue and Eskdale, on the first day of the 7am - 7pm openings through which traffic will be let this week, following four days of freight traffic last week.
The cheery smile and wave from Tracy Neho as she helps the people get moving after five weeks of Napier-Taupō road closure in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland
It was, however, the end of one world and the beginning of another for the first motorists through from Taupō.
For over 100 kilometres there was comparatively little evidence of Gabrielle’s nastiness, but then, there it was: about 20km of the devastation leading into the Esk Valley, most starkly the destroyed homes, ruined vehicles piled into the rubble and other odd places, the mangled stretch of the Napier-Wairoa railway line beside Munn’s Bridge, and the silt plains created as Esk River bottlenecked, dammed and burst, throwing everything it could at the valley in those horror hours of the morning of February 14.
Storm debris and silt piled up in paddocks next to the defunct rail line and Munn's Bridge north of Eskdale. Photo / Warren Buckland
At the Taupō end, where I’d stopped for the night after a long-way-around visit to the grandchildren in Hamilton, there were no queues waiting to hit the road, although motelier Carol Lin, at the Vu Thermal Lodge, had told me there were guests who were anxious about whether the road would be open in the morning.
There were more at the Napier end waiting to head north, but it was clear why national highways management agency Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency and police would want people to take the utmost care in what is just the next stage of a very long reinstatement of the highway, just as families and individuals most severely hit face a long road to rebuilding their lives.
Fence posts going into boundaries alongside State Highway 5. Photo / Warren Buckland
“While we’re all pleased that we can travel the road again, just like us, the road is still recovering from the recent devastating effects of Cyclone Gabrielle,” said Eastern Police road policing manager Inspector Angela Hallet.
Temporary speed limits of 30km/h remain in place, and it’s well-patrolled by police. We counted seven marked vehicles on the run home towards Napier.
The latest contingent of police from outside supporting the Eastern District staff in the ongoing crisis had arrived in Hawke’s Bay yesterday, several pressed into an immediate presence on State Highway 5.
Mid-afternoon, after a couple of hours on the highway, Inspector Hallet said safety is the priority, particularly for the road repair crews and traffic management - people like Tracy Neho, who need to have the utmost protection to complete the job of restoring the vital link, and themselves get home safely.
Hence the need for specific care from motorists, the speed limits and other traffic management in place.
Hallet said: “The main thing is that people do slow down.”
