In November last year, the New Zealand Transport Agency/Waka Kotahi announced the Desert Road, between Tūrangi and Waiouru (State Highway 1), would close from Monday, January 13.
As well as reconstructing 16 lane kilometres (three sites) of road, improving drainage, and clearing about 15km of shoulders, the deck of the Mangatoetoenui Bridge would be replaced.
“The bridge, built in 1966, has a timber deck that is now in poor condition and in need of replacement,” said Roger Brady, Waikato Bay of Plenty Regional Manager of Maintenance and Operations for NZTA.
“This job alone would require the road to have been closed for about a month, so being able to do this at the same time as the other maintenance work due is a real win. It does mean there will be a period of up to four weeks from 22 January when SH1 is severed, during the time when the bridge has no deck at all."
Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust administers the interests of 12,000 owners and of nearly 23,000ha of land. Chief executive Topia Rameka said it was the biggest private land owner along the Desert Road.
"This closure really did blindside us, it's something that doesn't feature in the regional transport plan and when we were notified first of all things via the media, we had to reach out to our friends at NZTA to understand exactly what was taking place, how it was taking place and when it was taking place."
Rameka is also involved with a helibiking adventure company Kaimanawa Alpine Adventures which he said would be "severely impacted" by the road's closure.
The business is based on the Desert Road and has been operating for a little over a year, he said.
"We helicopter people up to the top of the Kaimanawas and then they take a fantastic journey through our whenua and it's been going excellent over the last 12 months."
Rameka said he realised the work being done on the Desert Road would benefit many others.
"But unfortunately for where we're located, directly off of the Desert Road, for at least one month of this operation people travelling from the north to the south will have to take an extra 40 minute one-way, hour and 20 return journey from Taupō for our clients to access our site, so that just puts it out of reach, an unsustainable option really for our clients, so we're looking to alternatives for them."
At this stage, there were already up to 300 people who had booked in for that period, which would mean a significant loss of income for the company, he said.
NZTA's consultation ahead of the closure was not good enough, Rameka said.
"I think the consultation's been poor, I think they've fallen short of their requirements under the operating framework, and we've subsequently reached out to them to see if we can work this through."
But it was very difficult to get compensation from an organisation such as the NZTA and it needed to improve its consultation processes, he said.
"NZTA need to connect with us, they know that we've got a relationship with them, we're the largest private landowner down the Desert Road, we support them when it comes to incidents and other works, we are supportive of this work happening but what's important also is how it's done and our involvement in it."
Rameka said he was reasonably confident from an engineering and project perspective that NZTA would meet the two-month deadline for the road being closed.
"The issue really is how they engage with communities and how they take communities on with the journey and those users and I think on the front part of things they need to have a good hard think about whether or not they've done this."
The closure means up to 20,000 vehicles would be diverted to regional roads and take motorists through towns such as Ohakune, National Park and possibly even Taumarunui and Raetihi.
Ben Wiggins who owns Ohakune-based TCB Ski Board and Bike said the town was used to big seasonal influxes of people and in winter it swelled from 1000 residents to up to 20,000 as people came through for skiing and snow boarding.
The opening of new cycling trails meant Ohakune now had another visitor peak in summer, he said.
- additional reporting ODT Online
