No quick or easy solution for gorge

Despite promises of pace, a permanent alternative to the Manawatu Gorge road is at least six years away, according to a logistics specialist.

Giancarlo Hannan, a senior logistics analyst for Palmerston North company Corporate Logistics Ltd, has released a six-page report called The Achilles Heel of State Highway 3.

He said procrastination over settling on an alternative link had caused $100 million to be spent on the 145-year-old route since 2004.

Hannan’s report says it has taken the Government 13 years to seriously explore a solution.

He examines the four options detailed in the November 2012 report prepared for the NZ Transport Agency. Hannan said that report came to the conclusion ‘‘a long-term solution will be at least seven to 10 years away’’.

No progress had been made on the alternatives since that report.

SH3 through the gorge is closed indefinitely after slips in April.

Regional transport manager Ross I’anson said the agency was in the process of undertaking a detailed business case on options for an alternative east-west route.

‘‘We will know more about the potential options by the end of August and what their timelines would be. A final option will be decided upon by December 2017,’’ l’anson said. There would then be public consultation.

In July, a transport agency official told a Woodville community meeting that a permanent fix was expected within three years.

Hannan said he didn’t see how that was possible. While actual construction of an alternative route could take three years, so could the planning, purchase, consents and compliance process.

‘‘With due diligence and perhaps with the relocation of some wind turbines – depending on the route chosen – it will be three years before there’s even a peg in the ground.’’

A spokesman for Transport Minister Simon Bridges said he never put any timeline on delivery of the project. ‘‘The NZ Transport Agency is progressing this work much more quickly than normal timelines because of the importance of finding a long-term solution for this important connection,’’ Bridges said.

Of the four gorge alternatives, Hannan preferred the Greenfields route, an almost 6-kilometre-long straight cut through the Tararua Range from the Fitzherbert East Rd-napier Rd junction to the Ballance Bridge.

It would require the excavation of 52 million cubic metres of soil, a 200m-deep cut to make the gradient manageable for trucks and the removal of eight wind turbines.

His second preference is for the bridging and viaduct option along the present route. While Hannan said it would be a terrific scenic drawcard, there was also the risk of deep-seated slope failure.

The nearly 5.5km-long tunnel option at $1.8 billion was the most expensive and cut through two major active fault lines.

A fourth option, known as Worley Rd, crosses the river at the Ashhurst end of the gorge, and sweeps north, crossing the Saddle Rd to come out of the Ruahine Range above the existing route to link with Woodlands Rd.

While it had a gentle gradient and was potentially the least expensive, it added 5km to the distance, and would require extensive land purchases, along with the possible removal of three turbines. Logistically, this was Hannan’s least-favoured option.