![\"Businesses](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/businesses-on-taradale-road-in-marewa-have-been-affected-by-OTPHE2ICM5HPLPHMUFICANLV2E.png\")
<\/p>\nA Napier business owner says nine months of roadworks have left him on the brink of bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
By Linda Hall of Local Democracy Reporting<\/p>\n
Hetal Shastri has owned the League Park Superette on Taradale Rd, Marewa, for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n
The business has survived Covid and bad weather events, but Shastri says roadworks have trimmed his income 30% to 40% over a nine month period.<\/p>\n
The southbound lane of Taradale Rd was closed by Napier City Council on January 25 to allow workers to replace a culvert. It has not opened since.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter operating our business for many years, we are now at the point where we are genuinely concerned that we may not be able to continue trading and could face bankruptcy,\u201d Shastri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had to sell our two family cars to pay arrears on my mortgage.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Napier City Council spokesperson said the council acknowledged the frustration businesses in the area had experienced during construction and understood the impact the southbound lane closure had on customer access and day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaradale Road will reopen to two-way traffic from September 21, marking a significant milestone for the Taradale Road and Herrick Street Culvert Upgrade Project, and welcome news for local businesses and the wider community,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said the project has taken longer than planned, with wet weather repeatedly causing delays.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Taradale Road is a key transport corridor, northbound traffic has had to be maintained throughout, requiring multiple traffic management changes as work progressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Businesses on Taradale Road in Marewa have been affected by roadworks that have been ongoing for almost nine months. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
Shastri said he had repeatedly contacted the council and asked for help \u201cbecause this is no longer simply an inconvenience for our business \u2013 it is threatening our livelihood and the future of our shop\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said he understood the roadworks had to be done and that sometimes there were delays, but nine months was \u201ctoo long\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t recall there being lots of rain. For me, that is the wrong excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the business was his family\u2019s main income, and the bills continued to mount.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t paid my lease for two months and one of my main suppliers has stopped delivering to me because of unpaid bills.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe financial difficulties are already affecting my credit history, which will make it difficult to obtain finance in the next few months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has put a lot of stress on my family\u201d.<\/p>\n
Two neighbouring businesses were also struggling.<\/p>\n
League Park Fish Supply owner Chiv Tan said his takings had been down about $2000 a week since January and Century Bakery & Cafe owner Pheanrith Seng said he\u2019d had a \u201csignificant drop\u201d in income.<\/p>\n
The council spokesperson said there would be further changes to traffic layouts over the next week and a half as crews completed final reinstatement work, with both northbound lanes remaining open throughout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWork has also begun on upsizing the culvert beneath Herrick Street, where a full road closure is letting crews work faster and get the project done sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Shastri fears it is already too late for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work has been delayed so much. It will take months to recover even if we get our customers back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local Democracy Reporting is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Napier business owner says nine months of roadworks have left him on the brink of bankruptcy. By…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20277,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-594656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-hawke-s-bay","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594656","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=594656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}