Sumner Rd to reopen next month

A critical link between Lyttelton and Sumner is due to reopen in March after being closed since 2011.

Sumner Rd was closed after tonnes of rocks tumbled down from surrounding cliffs in the February 2011 earthquake.

Christchurch City Council transport planning and delivery manager Lynette Ellis said the project had been a ‘‘massive undertaking’’. There was a ‘‘final push’’ to get the road surface laid, the safety barriers installed, and the line markings done. ‘‘While our contractors are doing this work, there will be trucks moving through both Lyttelton and the RedcliffsSumner areas.’’

Stonemasons were working to finish the retaining walls at the Lyttelton end of the road. The walls are being built from rocks that were salvaged from Sumner Rd as part of the rockfall risk-reduction work.

‘‘It will make moving over-dimension freight to and from the port much easier and it will mean no more dangerous goods convoys through the tunnel,’’ Ellis said.

The reopening would also reconnect Lyttelton and Sumner and open up more cycling access in the Port Hills.

Lyttelton Harbour Business Association chairman and Lyttelton SuperValue manager Rob de Thier said it was ‘‘great news’’. ‘‘It’s something a lot of businesses here have been looking forward to. It creates a lot of business.

‘‘We get a lot of tourists coming over and retired couples who do day trips. And we now have access to Sumner again, it’s 10 minutes instead of half an hour.’’

He said when some dangerous freight trucks went through the Lyttelton tunnel, it could close the tunnel to other traffic. The road reopening meant the freight traffic would go on Sumner Rd.

Lyttelton Community Association chairman Ken Maynard said it would mean there would be less freight traffic on the road around Lyttelton and the greater harbour area.

‘‘No more dangerous goods convoys through the tunnel.’’