Highway rebuild just got a little easier

For the first time since the Kaikoura earthquake, road crews working to re-open State Highway 1 have access all along the coastal route.

The last time anyone drove around Ohau Point was nearly a year ago, before the earthquake brought down thousands of tonnes of rock on the highway.

But that all changed on Monday, when crews working from the south and north converged in the middle to open up an access track around the base of the point.

A couple of slips still remain along the coast, and access around Ohau Point is limited to excavators, but nonetheless the ‘‘viable link’’ has been described as a major milestone.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges said the achievement would help speed up the work to get SH1 open to the public by Christmas.

Bridges said the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTIR) teams had cleared seven of the nine major slips that buried parts of the highway and railway line north of Kaikoura.

But getting access around Ohau Point, the largest and most technically challenging slip, had long been the sticking point.

During the 7.8-magnitude earthquake more than 100,000 cubic metres of rock and debris slipped down the cliff face, burying the highway below.

To make it safe for ground crews, abseilers working at the top of the bluff bolted on 4500 square metres of steel ring net – the largest rockfall drape in New Zealand.

NCTIR coastal route realignment construction manager David McDoey described the access track as a foundation, one that would be used by excavators to form a safer track some 4 metres higher for light vehicles.

However, having any kind of access around the point was a big deal, as it meant machinery could be transferred from sites south of Ohau to slip seven, just north of the point.

‘‘For the first time we can transfer a 50-tonne excavator from site six over to site seven. Whereas previously we would have had to have an eight or nine-hour journey around,’’ he said.

It also meant road crews based in Blenheim, who faced a 90-minute journey to sites just north of Ohau, could be based in Kaikoura, he said.