Kaikoura road to open mid-December

The earthquake-stricken highway north of Kaiko¯ura is due to reopen on December 15.

NZ Transport Agency earthquake recovery manager Tim Crow warned the highway would remain an active construction site.

‘‘It will look like it’s unfinished, but it will be safe for the public to use.’’

Drivers are advised to allow 51⁄ hours to drive the coastal route between Picton and Christchurch, an hour less than the alternative inland route.

The crucial section of State Highway 1, which suffered huge earthquake and landslide damage during last November’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake, provides a vital link for freight, tourism and other traffic.

Its closure costs the freight industry an estimated $2.7 million in additional expenses each week and dropped the annual tourism spend in Kaiko¯ura by nearly half, taking $63m from the region.

The highway will reopen only during daytime hours, and with unsealed sections, lane closures and stop-go traffic control. Some temporary day closures are also possible.

There will be three or four areas where drivers can pull off the road for a rest and to take in the views.

‘‘However, we do need a lot of the space as well, this is a very constrained corridor,’’ Crow said.

He said that at Ohau Point, where the largest slip came down, the road would reopen at half of its final height as work building seawalls continued.

‘‘We’ll still have a lot of work to go, but what we’ll be doing is building a temporary road so that we’ll have over Christmas two-lane traffic.’’

After Christmas, that section was likely to go back to one lane with stop-go sections so seawall construction could continue.

Further south, a new bridge is being built at a site known as Irongate.

As of Thursday, the columns to support the bridge were in place and the first spans of the bridge had been laid.

Crow said that before the road’s opening, pre-poured beams would be landed on the bridge structure and a deck would be built, which Christmas traffic would use.

He said it was misleading to see a construction site and think finishing was a way off as ‘‘the final work, to get traffic to be able to run on this, is actually probably the quickest part’’.

‘‘What you don’t see is all the groundwork that it takes, and a lot of that work is actually scaling, sluicing, getting it safe.’’

Earthquake recovery work would continue through early 2018. As that work was finished, contractors would switch to building the $231m upgrade that would realign some sections undamaged in the quake and build a separated cycleway along 60 kilometres of the highway.

Highway work south of Kaiko¯ura would also continue in the new year.