business case assessing the gorge in May 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIn the business case, we have identified options for investment that address the highest-risk resilience sites, alongside options that would improve the resilience of the entire corridor,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the January 2026 weather events, we are currently investigating changes to the scope and cost of the programme to achieve the minimum resilience level set out in the business case.\u201d<\/p>\n
East Coast (National) MP Dana Kirkpatrick said the report was \u201ctimely\u201d. <\/p>\n
The road was \u201ccritical for our region, and for the GDP of our region\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are perpetually in a recovery environment. That is the problem,\u201d she told the Gisborne Herald. <\/p>\n
\u201c[National] have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Tair\u0101whiti roading infrastructure, but there\u2019s a long way still to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ikaroa Tair\u0101whiti (Labour) MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel said road closures were \u201cbecoming an everyday part of life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t comment on NZTA, but what I can tell you is [Tair\u0101whiti\u2019s roads are] clearly are not a priority of this Government. They have named their Roads of National Sgnificance and we are not named,\u201d Tangaere-Manuel said.<\/p>\n
Hannon is holding off on expanding his business further into the region. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe higher level of uncertainty is not necessarily helping us want to invest more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart said NZTA was working on restoring full access to the gorge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make sure access is restored fast, but also safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
East Coast Council join for \u2018urgent\u2019 funding push<\/p>\n
A joint statement by the Gisborne, \u014cp\u014dtiki, Bay of Plenty Regional and Hawke\u2019s Bay councils said issues on State Highway 2 were \u201cno longer simply a local transport matter\u201c.<\/p>\n
The councils sent a formal joint letter to Transport Minister Chris Bishop on April 10 about State Highway 2 through the East Coast corridor, and met with him last Wednesday.<\/p>\n
They described the highway north through the Waioweka Gorge and south to Hawke\u2019s Bay as a \u201cnationally significant freight and lifeline route that is repeatedly being disrupted by slips, flooding, closures, geotechnical instability and ongoing recovery works\u201d.<\/p>\n
Included in the proposals was formal recognition of the road as \u201cnationally significant economic and lifeline infrastructure\u201d and prioritisation of resilience and reliability through future Government Policy Statements and National Land Transport Plans. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor Tair\u0101whiti, State Highway 2 is not just another road. It is our lifeline for freight, health services, emergency response, tourism, business confidence and the everyday movement of our people,\u201d Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOngoing uncertainty [for] our businesses is killing our local economy,\u201d Jones said. The report estimates about $524,000 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[226977,138,8606,25137,219,12410,121901,26755,78,11156,440,111,139,69,1560,312,13672,226979,30279,226978,9438,49649,142210,379],"class_list":["post-444729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-190m","tag-business","tag-closures","tag-disrupt","tag-economy","tag-gdp","tag-gorge","tag-highway","tag-in","tag-killing","tag-local","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-report","tag-says","tag-state","tag-straining","tag-tairwhiti","tag-tradeable","tag-trust","tag-unpredictable","tag-waioweka","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}