Message #121946

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Gorge cleanup to cost $9m

By JESSICA SUTTON - Manawatu Standard | 12 NOON - Thursday, 10 November 2011


HUGE TASK: Associate Transport Minister Nathan Guy,
foreground, and New Zealand Transport Agency state
highways manager David McGonigal discuss the extent
of the gorge slip. — WARWICK SMITH/Fairfax NZ.

THE MANAWATU GORGE will not reopen to traffic until next year, and the cost of work to clear the debris is expected to reach $9 million.

Since part of the Tararua Range hillside fell on to State Highway 3 on August 18, the gorge has been closed to traffic for all but three days.

On October 17, there was a second major slip and since then the gorge has been too unstable for workers to continue the cleanup.

Yesterday, Associate Transport Minister Nathan Guy was joined by Palmerston North Mayor Jono Naylor, Manawatu District Mayor Ian McKelvie, New Zealand Transport Agency staff, several National Party candidates and district council officials to discuss what is being done for the cleanup.

So far $3.5m has been spent on the cleanup and assessment of the hillside's stability, and that figure is expected to increase to up to $9m by the time the road is reopened.

The hillside has been too unstable for contractors to use heavy machinery to clear the rubble.


SHOCKED: Interested parties were invited to the Manawatu Gorge site yesterday to learn
about the cleanup. — WARWICK SMITH/Fairfax NZ.


BLOCKED: The Manawatu Gorge Road blocked by the slip. — WARWICK SMITH/Fairfax NZ.

NZTA state highways manager David McGonigal said it was unlikely the road would be open in time for Christmas.

"Until we actually start the process, it's difficult to predict [the timeline]."

"Until we get in there and get the machines up there, it's one of those things that we need to wait and see," he said.

The area of the slip on August 18 was 9,500 square metres, and after the second major slip on October 17 the area grew to 26,000 square metres.

A further 3,000 square metres of rockface has been identified as unstable and will need to be removed.

The Manawatu Standard also visited the site, which is secured by a padlocked gate to keep public out.

The magnitude of the slip is visible through the cracks in the road which lies underneath a vast amount of debris and mud.


BROKEN: A new image showing a crack in the road beneath the slip. — WARWICK SMITH/Fairfax NZ.


SHOCKED: Interested parties were invited to the Manawatu Gorge site yesterday to learn
about the cleanup. — WARWICK SMITH/Fairfax NZ.

About 80,000 cubic metres of debris from the hillside has created a slide-like formation from the road down into the Manawatu River.

Mr McGonigal said the cleanup process was a challenging and complex exercise.

"We'll be coming in from the other side of the hillside and cutting a track through the bush, then the machines will come in."

"We will have a bulldozer acting as an anchor, and there will be a digger down doing the benching work and that digger will be attached to the bulldozer."

He said there had been workers on ropes assessing the slip in the past few weeks, but no machinery had been in as it was too dangerous.

Mr McGonigal said despite the slips in the gorge, it was still the most "economically reliable route".

Mr Guy, who is also the Otaki MP, said he was confident that NZTA's plan of attack was a "very good plan" and was being done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

"The difficulty in a situation like this is safety has to be paramount and there might be an opportunity down the track for contractors to work in the hours of darkness, but we would need to be assured that it was very, very safe."

Mr Guy also said an upgrade of the Saddle Road was needed, but this was to be funded through regional roading funds.

• To read a full copy of the NZTA's Manawatu Gorge Q&A document click here.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/5941688/Gorge-cleanup-to-cost-9m


National ‘twisted’ MP's gorge tunnel suggestion

By MATHEW GROCOTT - Manawatu Standard | 12 NOON - Thursday, 10 November 2011

PALMERSTON NORTH MP Iain Lees-Galloway has accused the National Party of being too busy attacking his ideas to come up with its own for the Manawatu Gorge.

At the Manawatu Standard debate on Tuesday night, National candidate Leonie Hapeta said Mr Lees-Galloway wanted to build "a billion-dollar tunnel" as an answer to closure of State Highway 3 due to slips.

On Tuesday, Mr Lees-Galloway said he had never made such a claim. He said yesterday what he had done was suggest several times options for a long-term solution for the gorge, and a tunnel had been one of these. He said he had always maintained a tunnel was likely to be too expensive and difficult to build.

He said he had been fulfilling his role as an MP "to propose a range of ideas, offer the pros and cons of each, to stimulate debate, to get people talking about what's possible". "If the National Party wants to twist my words for political debate, that's fine," he said. "You won't find a claim that I want to build a tunnel."

The Standard asked Mrs Hapeta when Mr Lees-Galloway had said he wanted to build a tunnel.

"I'd heard that from Wellington, that's what I'd heard that he'd said. It was said in Parliament in the final couple of days," she said. "Whether or not Iain actually said that I don't know."

Mrs Hapeta said she had not heard Mr Lees-Galloway himself say he wanted to build a tunnel, but she had heard National MP Tau Henare make the claim.

On October 05, Mr Lees-Galloway made a speech in Parliament about the gorge. According to Hansard records his reference to a tunnel was: "There is no easy solution to the Manawatu Gorge problem. Building a tunnel or a suspension bridge are both gold-plated options that have been considered before and passed over."

Mr Henare spoke next and was listing Labour MPs who might not return to Parliament after the election.

"Then there is Iain Lees-Galloway," he said. "He wants to put a tunnel under the Manawatu. He wants to put a tunnel there so there are no more slips. My goodness me. That is not going to get him in."

Mr Lees-Galloway wrote a blog on October 26 where he listed a tunnel as one of three options along with an upgrade to the alternative routes and a series of tunnels and/or bridges through the gorge.

On October 13 he talked to the Standard about the possibility of a viaduct around the slip site along the lines of the Otira Viaduct in Arthur's Pass, which was an "economically less important road".

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/5941689/National-twisted-MPs-gorge-tunnel-suggestion