Roading crews have made good progress over the weekend reopening local roads affected by last week’s weather event and flooding, which left widespread damage across the Ruapehu district.
Council road engineers have been assessing roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, with repair work focused on restoring access to at least one lane.
There are now no isolated communities, although many roads remain in a fragile condition.
Ruapehu Controller Clive Manley said reinstating reliable road access was the top priority for rural residents, particularly farmers whose livelihoods depend on dependable transport links.
“Our crews have been working as quickly as possible to reconnect the network, and we’re pleased to now have access restored to all townships that had been isolated,” he said.
Floodwaters caused around 80 percent of the roading damage leaving behind cracking, slumping, heavy silt deposits, logs, debris, together with numerous slips and dropouts.
With roads reopening, Mr Manley is urging motorists to take extreme care.
“There will be heavy vehicles and repair crews operating across the district, specifically around Ohura and Matiere.
We’re asking people to drive cautiously and to be patient as some repairs will take time to complete, and with more rain forecast next week, the risk of new slips remains,” he said.
Council Infrastructure Manger Vini Dutra added that once we are getting people and goods moving again the focus will shift to planning and implementing long-term repairs.
“While NZTA’s emergency funding arrangements allow remedial work to reopen the network, permanent solutions require detailed engineering assessments and costings.
Although this takes longer, it means Council and NZTA can make informed decisions about whether to replace damaged assets like-for-like or invest in greater long-term resilience,” Mr Dutra said.
“This latest weather event is the third major storm in five months.
The first weather event in June caused $2.23 million in damages with the second in July costed at $1.9 million.
Damage and repair costs for this most recent event will also be in the millions of dollars.
We were still working through repairs from the July weather event, with around 100 sites yet to be completed, and were expecting NZTA funding approval for this work within the next two to three weeks.
Even with an increased Funding Assistance Rate (FAR) from NZTA to support recovery works, Ruapehu ratepayers will still need to contribute a significant local share - potentially more than $1 million across the three storm events.
Council will be working to unlock funding from all possible sources to reduce the financial pressure on Ruapehu ratepayers,” he said.
Progress in undertaking repairs including on road conditions will be posted on Council’s website ruapehudc.govt.nz and Facebook page.
People are asked to continue to call Council on 07 895 8188 with any road outage information.
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