Workers provide silver lining after Kaikoura quake

The influx of workers for the restoration of State Highway 1 between Clarence and Kaikoura is not only a huge step towards the effort to re-open State Highway 1 and the railway line, but a great boost for our electorate’s economy.

Activity on the highway between Blenheim and Clarence has increased, and there are people staying in Marlborough motels while they work on the road.

In Clarence, a number of people associated with the road restoration are now based in leased accommodation in the area and I have been told more workers are looking for places to stay.

For the local owners of these properties, this means some unexpected and no doubt welcome MP’s REPORT extra income.

There’s no doubt that some businesses along our stretch of east coast are struggling postearthquake, and they still have some time to wait until the estimated road opening of December.

So it is heartening to see that a number of locals, including some of Kaikoura’s tourism operations staff who are currently without work due to the affects of the earthquake, are finding work on the road project, which currently involves about 400 workers on site.

I recently visited a section of SH1 with Civil Defence Minister Nathan Guy and was pleased to learn that most of the traffic management staff there are Kaikoura people.

Contractors are spending about a million and a half dollars a day at the moment, which is a huge amount of stimulus for the Kaikoura community.

I have also visited the site of the new road workers’ camp near Kaikoura, where units are now in place and being connected to town services including sewage, water and power, with the first section of camp due to open this week.

The facility, with 300 beds, needs 21 people to manage it, and 19 of those are locals.

Those living at the facility will have their breakfast and lunch made largely by Kaikoura people.

For dinner, they will be taken by bus to various restaurants around town. As the camp is just a short distance from Kaikoura’s centre, workers may also choose to use other services and retail during their time off.

Of course, the camp residents are not the only road and railway workers staying in town, and some accommodation providers already lease units for workers to use, bringing more much-needed income during this challenging time.

In short, the support for businesses in Kaikoura and also our wider electorate thanks to the road and railway rebuild is quite significant.

For some, it’s a silver lining in a challenging situation.

PHOTO: REUTERS US President Donald Trump yearns to be loved, to be admired. Praise is the fuel he runs on, says Joe Bennett. But his stupidity and vanity have trapped him in a job that is utterly beyond him.