“If you live in the Sounds, it’s a fantastic place to live and work. But you’ll know the environment is changing, isn’t it? The climate is changing,” said Wayne Oldfield, NZTA Marlborough Roads System manager.
Giving an update on the Marlborough Roads Recovery Project at Picton Menz Shed at the start of the month, Wayne Oldfield and Steve Murrin – NZTA Marlborough Roads Recovery Manager – said repeated weather events are raising broader questions about how to maintain roads long-term across the region.
The pair said almost $300 million has been committed to repairing Marlborough’s roads following damaging storm events since 2021, funded by NZTA and Marlborough District Council.
Repairing damage in the Marlborough Sounds has taken the largest allocation of $141 million, with subsequent weather events causing the need for more government claims each year.
Despite the challenges of the Sounds roads restoration, $40 million of the allocation was declared surplus and returned to the government, producing a direct saving for council.
Since then, however, more storm damage occurred this year in areas south of the Wairau River, causing an $8 million claim to be lodged.
“The rain we have isn’t [just] a wet day anymore. It’s real rain. You get those high intensities of rain quite quickly… and they are quite damaging rains now.
‘We’re seeing bigger weather patterns than we ever have before,” Wayne said.
Recent events have included the loss of the Tyntesfield road approach to the bridge, while the pair say some unstable slopes may be a result of lasting damage from the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake.
“If you live out in the Sounds or anywhere in Awatere, any old town can just fall over, can’t it?” Wayne added, on the infrastructural challenges being faced during storm events.
Building resilience into historic roads and high-risk areas is underway, to try and minimise excessive damage when weather events hit.
“The thing that keeps me and Steve awake at night is when we hear the fire engines go at nighttime,” said Wayne, describing the worry that a callout could involve a slip, crash or other incident on the region’s roads.
The recovery programme remains on track for completion by December 2027, provided the region avoids another major storm event.
“What we want now is a couple of years of dry weather,” Wayne said, allowing saturated land predisposed to slips to regenerate and recover.
