Oparure Road
Work is underway in Waitomo to repair damage caused by slips and washouts on sections of Oparure, Speedies and Waitahi roads.
It is also expected to improve resilience during future storms, Waitomo District Council’s Shyamal Ram said.
Waitomo District Council GM infrastructure service, Shyamal Ram
“Our roading network has suffered extensively over the years due to storm damage. It has taken some time to repair but we are getting there.”
The damage pre-dates the recent Valentine’s weekend storms which caused considerable damage and resulted in dozens of calls to The Lines Company and Waipā Networks.
“Roading projects are big investments and sometimes it takes a while to assess the level of damage and determine the best way forward that meets our level of service standards and funding availability,” said Ram.
The project includes constructing a retaining wall on Oparure Road and a block wall on Waitahi Road while repairing the surface and upgrading drainage on all three roads.
Work at Oparure Road, which began recently, is expected to be completed in approximately seven weeks. Works at Speedies Road and Waitahi Road will start in March and mid-April respectively and be finished by early May.
During the Valentine’s weekend storms, The Lines Company responded to more than 80 fault calls over a 72-hour period, four to five times the usual rate.
While there were no large-scale power cuts, many of the faults were complex, isolated jobs, impacting single properties or small groups, the electricity distributor’s chief executive Mike Fox said.
Speedies Road
“Our team worked around the clock to keep communities connected. This event showed exactly what resilience looks like – our crews, our control team and our communities pulled together when conditions were at their worst.”
In addition to field crews, control room staff managed responses, liaising with civil defence agencies and councils, dispatching teams and providing engineering support.
“At the height of the event, we had around 10 field staff out on the network at any one time, prioritising critical sites such as dairy farms, while facing challenging access conditions caused by flooding, slips and road closures,” Fox said.
In Wharepapa South, a farmer gave a mechanic a lift by quad bike – as the road was washed-out, his truck couldn’t get through. In another case, a farmer arranged for a helicopter to fly a member of Fox’s team to site.
Waipā Networks crews have also completed extensive repair work
Waitahi Road
The most significant impacts were experienced in western Waikato, including Pirongia and Kāwhia, where flooding, road closures and slips damaged poles, lines and other electrical equipment.
At one point 1300 customers were without power and Waipā Networks was supported by crews from Unison, Northpower and Wel Networks.
