Frustrations around on-going road closures due to slips and drop-outs around the Coromandel's State Highway network, has seen a public meeting being called in Coromandel Town next week.
The Coromandel Business Association has arranged the meeting, inviting New Zealand Transport Authority representatives to discuss the situation over slips along the Thames Coast Road/SH25 which has seen on-going road closures, affecting the upper Coromandel Peninsula for the past several months.
"We all want to work together, to plan the best way to resolve what is a huge issue across the Peninsula and a source of great frustration for us all," says Jan Autumn, from the Coromandel Business Association.
The meeting has the support from our Council, the Colville-Coromandel Community Board and the communities of the upper-Coromandel Peninsula and will be held Monday, July 31, 5.30pm at the Coromandel Town Citizen's Hall on Kapanga Rd.
"I encourage everyone to come and fill the Hall, to hear from NZTA what action is going to be done to fix the State Highway," says Thames-Coromandel District Mayor Sandra Goudie, who will also be at the meeting.
"I am also increasingly alarmed by the compromised condition of our state highway, where we are potentially facing a district where a large proportion is isolated by the collapse of this road, with no access to the northern half of the district," says Sandra, who has written a letter to Transport Minister Simon Bridges to express her concerns.
"I've explained in my letter that we're disenfranchised by the current government funding policy, based on vehicle numbers, with no accommodation for our unique circumstance as a tourist and visitor destination.
"I've also asked the Minister, what is the government's commitment to ensuring the State Highway remains open?"
In the past six months there have been several significant slips on the Thames Coast Rd, along with road drop outs between Thames and Coromandel Town and also on the Kopu-Hikuai Rd/SH25 at Pumpkin Hill between Tairua and Pauanui.
Meanwhile another slip on the Kopu-Hikuai Rd/SH25A between Kopu and Whangamata earlier this week resulted in the road being closed for several days.
Right now there is a road closure in place from 9am – 3pm, which returns to stop/go operation overnight.
It's expected the road will be open to two lanes later this week.
To get the latest updates on the state highway road closures click here.
2 comments
Frustrating - yes, but...
Posted on 27-07-2017 11:47 | By penguin
...when man interferes with nature e.g. cutting roads into hillsides, building on river fans and shifting coastlines, guess who wins in the long run? The Coromandel has been prone to slips and erosion for decades so it should be of no surprise that this will continue forever. Take a look at other unstable areas of NZ where there are problems with flooding, slips and erosion where man has destabilised the natural environment. As much as the results are inconvenient and frustrating, we reap the consequences of our actions. We just have to learn to live with the dynamism of nature.
It's life! Live with it as best we can
Posted on 28-07-2017 09:29 | By Papamoaner
If you get enough rain, the topsoil begins to liquify. If there's a slope, we all know how liquified topsoil flows downhill. If you have cut a road across the toe of a hillside, you have invited it. This is life. No point blaming anybody. We just have to live with nature. Try to appreciate how difficult it is to fix while it's still wet and mobile. In the general scheme of things, It's a small price we pay for living in hilly country. We have the machinery and expertise to fix it, but it takes time and PATIENCE.
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