Together, TREC completed work on State Highways 2, 5, 35, 38, 50 and 51.
They repaired or rebuilt 125 faults along the network, including more than 70 underslips, 20 buttresses, more than 35 retaining walls and more than 40 culverts. About 80% of the work was delivered by local contractors.
NZTA principal project manager Richard Bayley said the alliance completed more than 2.4 million hours on the project in Hawke’s Bay and about 4100 workers had been inducted on the job.
“It’s a bit surreal really because it’s a huge shift that’s been put in by the teams.”
Bayley said the biggest jobs were the initial response to the cyclone.
“State Highway 5 was covered in silt and there were a few sections missing,” Bayley said.
“State Highway 2, going out through Devil’s Elbow, the whole road was just covered in landslides.
“Just all the soil had come off the slope above and covered the road.”
The Napier-Taupō Rd was shut to cars for 36 days after the cyclone, and the Napier-Wairoa Rd was shut for 91 days.
Bayley said Devil’s Elbow between Napier and Wairoa was a tight working environment that his team couldn’t just throw resources at.
“You’ve got to carefully plan around keeping the road open and keeping the traffic flowing.”
But Bayley said the job never felt too big for his team.
“You just break it down into bite-sized pieces and work from there.
“There were plenty of days where you wonder whether you can last the duration of the job yourself.”
Part of the rebuilt Devil’s Elbow between Napier and Wairoa on SH2. Photo / TREC
TREC moved north to complete repairs in Tairāwhiti.
Bayley is focused on finishing the job by December.
He said the project went up East Cape, about three hours’ drive from his home in Gisborne, probably one of the most remote parts of the State Highway network.
“When you work in this recovery space and these alliances where you’re constantly dealing with unknowns, so every day is a challenge and a school day, so you just learn to roll with it.
“Hopefully it’s a long time before we have to consider doing something similar again.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.