Work to repair an underslip on the only sealed road into the Waikato settlement of Kawhia will take five weeks, says Waka Kotahi NZTA. Photo / Susan Murray/RNZ
Work to repair an underslip on the only sealed road into the Waikato settlement of Kawhia will take five weeks, says Waka Kotahi NZTA. Photo / Susan Murray/RNZ
Residents and businesses in the Waikato settlement of Kawhia are worried about a five-week closure on State Highway 31, as Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency begins fixing an underslip.
The highway is the only sealed road into Kawhia and it will be open only on weekends and for a one-hour period in the middle of each week day, during the repair period.
“The plan is to close the road each week day at 8am, we will work until 12.30pm then open it for one hour, closing it again from 1.30pm to 5.30pm,” Waka Kotahi system manager for Waikato Cara Lauder said in a statement.
Residents will need to resort to unsealed alternative roads if they want to travel at other times.
Works started on Tuesday, and have already prompted one local eatery to shut down.
The Rusty Snapper - the only sit-down cafe in Kawhia - never fully bounced back from the effects of the Covid-19 lockdowns, and the prospect of five weeks of disrupted access was the last straw for its owner.
Paul Barlow said his mother Sonja Barlow had been running the cafe for seven years and had to make the tough call to close the business.
“It was a really bad summer, followed by a road closure which means [we] can’t get supplies through, and weekend-only trade just isn’t going to be enough to keep the business going,” he said.
Barlow said despite much local support, they relied heavily on visitors and tourists to keep afloat, and the successive blows of Covid-19 and weather events had been tough.
The cafe served its last fish and chips and burgers over Easter weekend.
Ōtorohanga District Council Mayor Max Baxter. Photo / Supplied
Another business owner, who asked not to be named, said working around the one-hour window when the road would be open during week day working hours would be difficult.
“I have to bring fresh produce into Hamilton, and those time frames - I don’t work in those time frames.
“I work when the fishermen come in, they bring the fish, so it’s actually quite hard,” she said.
But she said she was prepared to “just roll with it” as she thought it was important to make State Highway 31 safe again through the repairs.
Waka Kotahi said residents could take an alternative route in the meantime - via State Highway 39 to Ngutunui Rd, Pekanui Rd, Okupata Rd, and Oparau Rd.
Lauder said she would still encourage people to use SH31 when it was open, rather than travel on the unsealed roads which are narrow and could get congested.
Meanwhile, others are concerned about the impact on elderly family members living in the area.
Rosemary Jacobs, who lives in Hamilton, said her 94-year-old father lives north of Kawhia and would need to plan ahead for medical appointments.
She said he would need to leave a day early and stay overnight in Hamilton in order to make any appointments at Waikato Hospital.
“You cannot expect an elderly person [who has] an eight o’clock appointment at the Waikato Hospital, to get up at five o’clock in the morning,” she said.
Jacobs said she accepted the road closures were necessary but hoped the alternative route on winding rural roads would be monitored for safety.
Ōtorohanga District Council Mayor Max Baxter acknowledged the inconvenience but said it was important the highway was fixed.
“I think five weeks will go by pretty quickly for most people.
“If we think of the pain that other parts of the country are going through now, where underslips will cause road closures for in excess of 12 months, I think we’ve got to be pretty satisfied that this road can be repaired in a very short period of time.”
