Hastings District Council says a longer-term work plan for repairing Hastings’ cyclone-ravage roading network is becoming clearer.
The Council is working to repair hundreds of slips cleared and culverts cleaned, and plan the detailed design of replacement bridges and major culverts.
Hastings deputy mayor and rural community board member, Tania Kerr said that, given the scale of the damage, prioritisation of the repair and rebuild work was needed.
“Our contractors are working their way through the road repair and rebuild list, prioritising based on level of vulnerability in new weather events, and level of road use,” said Cr Kerr.
She said Council’s roading team and contractors have now inspected the full 1,640-kilometre network and simultaneously started work on solutions for the major damage.
The result is a long list of rebuilds and repairs, estimated to take seven to eight years to complete.
As well as the 13 bridges that need to be completely rebuilt, another 40-plus need repairing, while five large and complex culvert rebuilds are also required.
Puketapu Bridge will be the first permanent rebuild, aimed to be completed by the middle of 2025. This is expected to be followed by Matapiro Bridge.
More than 30 kilometres of local roads were damaged in the cyclone – the vast majority in the rural area – affecting both sealed and unsealed roads.
Cr Kerr said work on some of the larger culverts may take longer as materials are sourced overseas and have long lead times because of sea freight/shipping.
“As well as focusing on the rebuild, the team is continuing with normal maintenance work. Drains are being cleared and sprayed out, and trees are being trimmed off the road corridor,” she said.
