Roadworks delay killing business
It was touted as an upgrade to ‘‘breathe new life’’ into Ngatea, but a delay in renewing the town’s main highway has left business owners out of pocket, staff without jobs, and the streets left looking like ‘‘a ghost town’’.
The main road along State Highway 2 was originally expected to be closed for two weeks, reopening on January 24, but unforeseen strengthening work has meant the construction is a week and a half behind schedule.
For Orly Barshai who owns Stop & Eat Cafe, the delay has meant closing her doors for more than three weeks. In that time, she’s lost ‘‘100 per cent’’ of her income, and has had to send home two staff while the work is ongoing.
‘‘When we had a meeting with NZTA, contractors Higgins and council, they told us that it would take 16 weeks, with two weeks of definite road closure. Just two.
‘‘The option was to have the road closure at the beginning of the project or at the end, either now, or over the Easter holidays, and the majority vote was to close now, because everybody believed it was only going to take two weeks,’’ Barshai said.
‘‘Everybody thought, okay, we’ll enjoy the summer a little bit longer, two weeks will be over, traffic will keep floating by, and town is not going to die ... we were wrong.’’ The bulk of the construction work, which included the highway renewal and upgrading the kerb and channel, started on January 14.
According to Hauraki District Council, asphalt was scheduled to be laid on the state highway on Monday and Tuesday.
When Stuff visited Stop & Eat on January 31, the sound of the coffee machine competed with the ear-piercing grinding of metal.
To get to Ngatea’s main street from the west, drivers had to ignore two detour signs, the first directing commuters towards Turua, and the second along Orchard East Rd.
On that day, Barshai was at times greeted by fellow Ngatea businesspeople and locals, but the cafe was empty of any travellers.
‘‘In a matter of profits, I’ve had a 100 per cent loss. There’s no income, and my employees ... I don’t even know if they are my employees anymore.’’
It’s the same across the road at Hammer Hardware, owned by Chris Spilsbury. They’ve had to reduce store hours, halved their labour, and have laid off one staff member.
He said the store, usually popular among travellers and residents alike, had become a ‘‘ghost town’’.
‘‘If the end was in sight, it would be easier, but the longer this goes on, the harder it is on my staff,’’ he said. ‘‘The customer count has dropped significantly, and we also get frustrated customers who haven’t realised our hours have changed and come in thinking we’re there but we’re not.
‘‘The question is, next time will they come back?’’
But the hardest part for both Barshai and Spilsbury has been the lack of communication from the Transport Agency. They said the agency’s transparency had been flawed and communication difficult.
However, Hauraki District
Council and NZTA responded with the same near word-forword answer when approached by Stuff.
They said that as well as providing regular face-to-face communication with business owners on the ground, the agency, Higgins and council staff and elected members have been communicating with individual business owners by phone and email.
The agency’s acting Waikato system manager Rob Campbell said the cause of the delay was due to ground conditions requiring additional, unforeseen strengthening works.
He expects to re-open the road to west-bound traffic mid-week.
Hauraki District Mayor Toby Adams said everyone knew there would be disruption and that it would have an impact; however, the effect on individual businesses was much harder to predict.
A meeting is scheduled for tonight with Adams and NZTA in attendance. It will be held at 5.30pm at the Ngatea Council Office.
‘‘If the end was in sight, it would be easier, but the longer this goes on, the harder it is on my staff.’’
Chris Spilsbury