Many state highways around the upper North Island were significantly damaged by weather events in early 2023. Waka Kotahi is committed to reconnecting people and communities.
Across the motu, Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay regions and Tararua district suffered extensive and devasting damage from the early 2023 weather events; Cyclone Gabrielle, the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Hale. Following these events, a significant period of recovery took place, and most of these regions are still in the recovery phase (returning transport networks to pre-event condition).
While Waka Kotahi prepares for significant weather events, and has resources in place to respond quickly, the sheer scale and complexity of the damage from these events means the recovery phase will take time.
The immediate focus was on restoring access which is vital for communities. Access has been restored to all locations. Recovery work will be ongoing, across all regions, until the state highway network returns to how it was before the weather events.
As a result of the 2023 weather events, Waka Kotahi completed Resilience Strategic Response business cases for Whangārei to Dome Valley, Coromandel Hauraki, Tairāwhiti Wairoa and Hawke’s Bay. These identified short-, medium- and long-term prevention based interventions to maintain and improve the resilience of the roading network.
This has been a collaborative effort with local government, iwi, suppliers and central government partners providing input such as how people use the transport network, both state highways and connections into local roads, what they need from it, and how it can be future-proofed.
Where possible, building future resilience into the transport network, as well as taking action to adapt to the environment, are critical to delivering long-term permanent solutions.
For the East Coast (Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay), Waka Kotahi partnered with KiwiRail, Downer, Fulton Hogan and Higgins to form Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC). TREC oversees the recovery and ongoing maintenance of the state highway and rail networks across the region, and will lead any future rebuild activity.
Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC)
Following Board approval for these business cases, Waka Kotahi is working with the Ministry of Transport and the Treasury to prioritise the various programmes of work and confirm funding for these.
