Officials to reveal road plan

Public consultation had been invited and a series of public meetings was held in Palmerston North, Woodville and Ashhurst.

Thirteen possible routes will soon become four – landowners, commuters and truckies are about to get a better idea how transport officials plan to fix or replace the road through the Manawatu¯ Gorge.

A short-list of four possible routes will be revealed at a public open day at the Palmerston North Conference and Function Centre from 3pm tomorrow and online.

State Highway 3 through the gorge has been closed since slips came down in April. In July, contractors were pulled from the area and the road linking Manawatu¯ and Hawke’s Bay was closed indefinitely amid fears about the stability of the hillside.

The final contenders for a longterm solution will have been those narrowed down from the 13 proposed routes made public by the NZ Transport Agency on September 25.

Among the long-list are two tunnel options, reaching 6 kilometres and 10.5km through terrain on the southern side of the gorge.

The northernmost option is an upgrade of the Saddle Rd, one of the current alternatives to the gorge, and the southern-most proposed route would start just outside Palmerston North’s northeast boundary.

Perhaps the most dramatic is the long-talked-about option of a viaduct through the centre of the gorge.

Public consultation had been invited online, by email, post or phone, and a series of public meetings was held in Palmerston North, Woodville and Ashhurst at the end of September.

The transport agency said hundreds of people had attended the meetings and ‘‘extensive feedback’’ had now been submitted, providing ‘‘valuable input’’.

About 7000 vehicles used to travel through the gorge each day, and a 2011 estimate by the region’s economic development agency estimated the cost of closures to the road at about $62,000 a day.

As more information had been collected about the 13 proposed options, it had become clear some were not realistic, the transport agency said.

However, it would not release more details until tomorrow.

Residents have raised concerns about how close some of the proposed routes are to Ashhurst, and a number of landowners whose land could be affected by various routes have expressed concern about how this could affect them.

After the options are unveiled tomorrow, further public meetings are planned at the Woodville Sports Stadium, on Thursday from 3pm, and at the Ashhurst Village Valley Centre, from 3pm on Friday.

Meanwhile, upgrades to Manawatu¯ ’s Saddle Rd will force traffic over the Pahiatua Track this week while maintenance work is carried out at Salisbury St in Ashhurst.

The Saddle Rd’s westbound lane, from Woodville to Ashhurst, will be closed until tomorrow, between 9am and 3pm.

There will also be general maintenance works, including pothole repairs and road-marking, taking place on the Pahiatua Track.

To submit feedback on the longlist, visit the NZTA website.