NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) has confirmed an enhanced Funding Assistance Rate (FAR) for emergency works repairs to roads in Marlborough damaged due to the June/July weather events.
This Financial Assistance Rate (FAR) will be 91% for response activities and 81% for recovery activities.
Marlborough District Council’s Regional Land Transport Committee Chair, Councillor Scott Adams welcomed the funding news.
“Marlborough Roads staff and contractors have been working to fix more than 780 faults across our entire local roads network caused by these recent storms with an estimated repair bill of around $20 million,” said Cr Adams.
“NZTA have acknowledged the challenges we are facing as a Council and responded very positively to our request for this enhanced FAR. We sincerely appreciate NZTA’s support in helping us to restore our local roads adversely affected by these recent weather events.”
The weather event which hit Marlborough on 27 June had the biggest impact across the district.
The worst damage occurred in the Awatere Valley, Northbank Road and Port Underwood Road. There were also several slips on Queen Charlotte Drive including a large slip between Ngākuta Bay and Momorangi Bay.
“Since late June, we have had further storm events pass through Marlborough which have caused more damage. Most of the damage has been overslips as well as several roads closed due to flooding,” Cr Adams said.
“Communities are still impacted by the damage with restricted access to Northbank Road due to a very large slip 2km in and also Port Underwood Road from Oyster Bay to Rārangi is still closed because of a large dropout.”
Cr Adams said Marlborough Roads estimated the Northbank Road slip at the 2km mark would be upwards of a $1 million repair by the time it was finished.
“This slip is 35m high, 60m across and contains around 20,000 cubic metres of material. That’s the equivalent of eight Olympic sized swimming pools. By the time contractors have finished on site, around 2,500 truckloads worth of material are expected to have been removed.
“By end of day Tuesday 12 August, the team on site had removed 11,800m3 of this material. Over the past few days this has been at a rate of around 800m3 per day,” he said.
Currently Northbank Road is closed from 9am to 4pm Monday to Saturday with lunchtime openings 12pm to 1pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays to allow repair works to be carried out.
