As I pen this comes the news that yet more rain and wild weather is affecting the east coast of the North Island. Focusing on Gisborne or Te Tairawhiti as it is increasingly being known as, it is a province that always had the reputation of being one of the more isolated provinces in New Zealand and always considered a destination rather than some where you pass through, perhaps en-route to somewhere else.
In the past this was not seen as such a major issue as there was plenty to attract people to Gisborne, the destination. An abundance of surf and swimming beaches, good climate and vineyard tours and scenic drives meant there was plenty to attract tourists to the region. Even though largely summer based it still was enough to keep a strong economic tourism base.
Unfortunately, the ongoing weather extremes of the last couple of years have eroded much of this.
Apart from just the lack of warm clear summer weather, the beaches are smothered in logs and roads are in a severely unreliable state.
Unfortunately, the weather extremes and the issues created have also affected to productive base of the region., partly through the flooding and accompanying silt and logs but arguably more so through the devastation to the roading infrastructure and its impact upon the region’s logistics. The impact of Cyclone Gabrielle in particular must be creating real concerns for those who control the purse strings around reinstating the infrastructure.
Gisborne and Wairoa lost rail services back in 2012 (due to damage and reinstatement expense to the line) and was reinstated back to as far as Wairoa in 2020. However, Cyclone Gabrielle has closed the rail line yet again with no date as to when it will reopen.
In 2022 there were conversations taking place that the possibility of extending rail from Wairoa right to Gisborne; it is likely these are firmly on hold at the moment.
The main SH2 south was also closed for 3 months and only opened in mid-May. The road north (SH2) is still subjected to closures for repairs and a general warning “Due to multiple road dropouts, State Highway 2 is open from Matawai to Te Karaka in both directions with convoys or temporary signals with a 30km/h temporary speed restriction in place. Road users are advised to take extra care and expect delays travelling through this area” is in place on the Waka Kotahi site.
The East Coast route (SH35) still has multiple sites where major repairs are required and it takes a robust traveller to go that way (or a local). “SH35 from Ōpōtiki to Gisborne will be closed to through traffic from 7pm tonight. However, motorists should be aware, there’s a strong likelihood the road will be closed earlier than that – at some point this afternoon. SH35 has also been closed this afternoon between Te Puia Springs and Ruatoria, because of flooding”.
The Gisborne region is used to transport disruption with Cyclone Bola having similar impacts to the current situation, the difference seems to be, there was a more positive outlook to the future back then. Climate warning extremes have dissipated some of this resolve.
So, looking ahead, transport of short shelf life products is now both riskier and more expensive to get to market and the attraction of both getting tourists to come into Te Tairawhiti region is going to be a difficult sell.
The logs on the beaches will disappear eventually, presumably. But how long that takes and the subsequent loss of supporting infrastructure such as motor camps, motels in the meantime as the economic grip tightens will mean Gisborne will take a long time to regain its position as a destination. Along with the lack of visitors for locals one of the attractions of living (remaining) in Gisborne was the access to the ocean. Some of my more pleasant past-time was spent at the Gisborne Yacht Club taking part in Sunday race days. These also took place in Mahia and Wairoa. It would now be a brave sailor to risk yacht and crew sailing these waters with the risk of hitting semi submerged logs so high. My point being the hold on young and old talent has diminished and getting good staff to come or remain in Gisborne must be going to become more difficult.
I don’t doubt Waka Kotahi are putting all efforts into getting the roads open and more reliable. The route north’s major problem appears to be issues with the Otoko hill and its very unstable geography. I presume someone has reminded Waka Kotahi that there was a rail route from Gisborne to Motuhoura (5miles beyond Matawai) and the Otoko section had a tunnel to avoid some of the ‘geography’ impacting upon the road. The rail was closed in 1959 with the 'improvement' of the roading system.
When discussions around the impacts of climate change were had much of the conversations focused on sea level rising and the impact of drought (all still ahead of us). The impending isolation of provinces, as Northland, Coromandel and Marlborough are also affected, did not feature and yet they are perhaps more challenging than any sea rise.
You do not have to look far from Gisborne to see what the impact of a lack of support does when the economic base is removed. The whole of the East Coast from at least Tolaga Bay to Hicks Bay shows the remnants of better times and when nothing was done to replace it.
What the solutions are for the region are no doubt will be challenging and expensive. But as a nation these regions can’t be allowed to be just written off as too expensive to maintain. If the rot is allowed to start at the provinces it will soon gobble up the rest of the country.
9 Comments
One could add the Manawatu gorge, although that one is been fixed , at a cost of hundreds of millions.
I'd like to see if there's any correlation between significant road damage and the rise in allowable truck weights.Many of these roads were never designed for this kind of weight , or intensity.
All these regions have access to sea, and suitable harbours. Of course that is how they were originally accessed. But its not "economic". The Auckland to Coromandel ferry has not run for some years , and was not set up for freight.Barges for logs has been looked at several times, and almost came to be , but i suspect local trucking interests had the final say. Repairs to S.H25a are to cost a 100 million or so , but talking to men who worked on the original road build , it is only one of several "soft" spots that could give way at any time. a bypass suitable for light traffic could have been built already, at a lot lower cost.The entire coromandel road netwrok is one big storm away from major damage.
In gisborne , i believe the interest of the local port are holding back reinstatement of the railway , and looking at barging options, as the freight would then go to Napier and Tauranga.
I'd like to see if there's any correlation between significant road damage and the rise in allowable truck weights. Many of these roads were never designed for this kind of weight , or intensity.
Of course there is a correlation - in each of the locations cited. We just have to admit it - logging, dairy tankers, and heavy weight trucking needs to stop where these remote locations are concerned. Passenger vehicle and school buses only and perhaps light-weight stock trucks. Everything else needs to go to coastal barges and coastal shipping.
An issue to work around would be the number of vehicle movements required to perform the same action.
For example, I put 36 yearling bulls on a truck recently, at 450-500kg each. If this was above weight limits I might split it into two loads of 18 animals. Now instead of having one unloaded and one loaded pass over the road you have two unloaded and two loaded passes, or two more passages of the weight of an unloaded stock truck - one for for each leg of the second trip. Instead of around 37 tons of total passage weight for the movement you're now at 57 tons.
You'd have to restrict passage to lighter weight trucks, which means even more trips. It could get to the point where I can only take out two beasts at a time on my trailer, towed behind my 4WD, for a total of...(furiously mashes calculator buttons...) 75 tons.
There's bound to be a sweet spot, I'm not any kind of engineer, and maybe eighteen 4 ton plus a single 3 ton pass do less damage than single passes of 10 tons and 27 tons, but it would definitely be a consideration. And then there's all the extra fuel and labour costs etc. Fascinating equation really.
Yes , that was the argument for putting the weight limit up , it would mean less truckloads overall. but in practice it means road has even more advantage over rail , and so more trucks. This was mean't to be on trunk routes only , that were to be upgraded to handle the extra weight.
Road damage cubes with the increase in axle weight, so 2 heavy trucks do not necessarily mean less road damage than 4 light ones.
But you are right , there will be times when a bigger truck is better, but it normally will result in more road damage.
i used to live next to a bridge on s.h.2 , on swampy ground, and the "bow wave" for a heavy truck going over it was incredible.
Definitely an interesting question as to what size loads. One thing is clear and that is the smaller the loads the higher the cost and the economic reality is remote areas are, or soon will be, unviable for livestock and forestry.
There are vast areas in the back country that will become life style blocks and be left to revert. A shame they are mucking the ETS about as this type of country is ideal for carbon farming.
I'm more fearful of the longer term issue of sea level rise. Having a road wash out, but remain above water is still a managable situation, but the scenario with sea level rise is that Northland (almost as far down as Hamilton) becomes a series of isolated islands.
Getting supplies to these islands will be much like getting supplies into the islands around Fiji and Tonga... air and sea only, and damned costly, intermittent and weather dependant. Say goodbye to regular trade and prosperity as we have known it. Electiciity? Will we get our own 'Cook Strait cable' arrngement to each and every island?
Folks living on high ground still need to consider whether their access to town involves proximity to coastal or riverside roads as well.
I look back at the conclusions I wrote for a lecture on climate change effects for first year planning students back in 2021 - and still, sea-level rise seems to be getting the lion's share of R&D attention and policy action.;
- Much local and central government attention (and money) is presently focused on planning for sea-level rise in 50 and 100 years time.
- Point is - no one is likely to die of sea-level rise - it is a slow, creeping, (largely) predictable hazard. We have time to adapt to sea-level rise, and hard protection has been, and always will be, an adaptation strategy for us as an island nation.
- However, more intense rainfall - triggering soil erosion, slips, slash, dam collapse and flood events – can be deadly, and our death toll is likely to increase with respect to these natural hazard events. Attention must also focus on mitigating risk associated with these sudden and largely unpredictable flood hazard events
- We already have models for distributing the costs of river flood defences in an equitable manner (i.e., those most benefiting and reliant on the protection pay a larger percentage of the cost via targeted rates). Similar financing models should be considered for defences built with respect to protection of assets (including access roads, e.g., the Eastbourne case study) from rainfall (slips) and coastal flooding.
- The property conflict (Campbell, 2006; 2016) will be a key consideration in determining where the costs of adaptation to storm surge/coastal flooding should lie.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.