On the road again: Picton and Christchurch reconnected
After a year, a month and a day, the South Island is able to use one of its most crucial roads from this afternoon.
State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura has been closed to the public since the
magnitude-7.8 earthquake of November
2016 sent more than a million cubic metres of cliffside tumbling over the road below in
10 major slips.
Since then, rebuild efforts of a scale unseen in New Zealand in recent times have been undertaken to get the vital link between Picton and Christchurch open before Christmas, with work going on around the clock at crucial sites.
So far, just under $500 million has been spent.
Yesterday afternoon, the road was a hive of activity but appeared ready to start taking cars when viewed from above.
The road will be open during daylight hours only and is expected to have unsealed sections, one-lane sections and stop-go controls in places. Driving time between Christchurch and Picton is expected to be about five and a half hours – at least an hour quicker than the alternative route that has been taking drivers over the Lewis Pass.
There will be construction sites in several places. Work will be slowed down over the holiday period but will ramp up again in the new year. Some full closures will be possible.
Months of roadworks is still to come on the highway, both for the rebuild and a
$231m improvements package for the section between Clarence and Oaro.
Rain on Wednesday night had some worried the opening would be delayed. NZ Transport Agency earthquake recovery manager Tim Crow said although it was ‘‘quite heavy’’ and ‘‘inconvenient’’, they were still on track for this afternoon’s reopening.
For Clark Butcher, the reopening signalled the end of his ‘‘milestone’’ beard, which he had grown since becoming project manager for O¯ hau Point in August. Butcher would shave it off after traffic was flowing on the highway again.
The route was going to be ‘‘a totally new experience’’ for motorists, he said.
‘‘We’ve had to realign several kilometres of road, we’ve built new bridges, they’re driving on new seawalls.’’
For tourism-dependent Kaikoura, the reopening was good news for local businesses.
Kaikoura District Mayor Winston Gray said it was a ‘‘big morale boost for the region’’, but there was an ‘‘anxious wait’’ until it opened.
‘‘This is positive for not just us, but from Ward to Waipara. Those stops along the highway are really waiting’’
He already knew of farmers north of Kaikoura who had booked trucks to come and take stock away this afternoon.
Kaikoura local Rusty Boyd said everyone was ‘‘frothing’’ to see some different faces in town and to see the work that had been done. ‘‘I’ve got friends and family up north as well, so it will be good to see them in three-ish hours, instead of seven to nine.’’
Destination Kaikoura general manager Glenn Ormsby said tourism operators were ‘‘ecstatic’’ the road was reopening.
People had been trickling back in, but the ‘‘floodgates would open’’ once the highway did.
To the south, the Cheviot region was also looking forward to the boost in motorists passing by.
Cheviot Promotions Society chairwoman Debbie Anderson said retail and hospitality outlets particularly relied on the steady stream of travellers on SH1.
‘‘I owned a cafe until around three months ago – my turnover, at times, was down by 80 per cent. No businesses have had to close but we’ve all had to work very hard to stay afloat.’’
Freight movement had been badly affected by the highway closure, which was estimated to cost trucking companies $27m a week.
Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley said many freight operators would continue using the alternative route initially because of daytime travel restrictions and intermittent stoppages on SH1.
Having less traffic on the alternative route would improve driving conditions, but caution would still be essential as the route was never designed to handle so many vehicles, he said.