Progress being made on SH25A slip, despite budget increase

Coromandel residents will have a fast-tracked fix for one of the most vital roads across their peninsula, the Minister of Transport says.

And for some with homes on the eastern side, it could not come soon enough.

The first piles were in the ground for a steel bridge that would span 124 metres across a ravine carved out by a landslide on State Highway 25A.

The erection of the bridge itself was due to begin in six weeks, with a deadline for completion in March 2024.

That meant another seven months where motorists travelling from the north would need to take the long way through Paeroa and Waihi to get to holiday hotspots Tairua and Pauanui.

But Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni said she was confident the work was heading in the right direction.

"They're on track, which is really positive, and on budget."

However, that budget was double the $23-28 million engineering consultants Beca estimated it would take to build the steel bridge in their remediation options report to Waka Kotahi last month.

The government put its own estimate at $30-40 million, but now said the cost could be up to $50 million, factoring in a contingency buffer, and highlighting the need for speed.

"We need to recognise that people are working here almost 20 hours a day, and the offsite work that is being done to support this project is going 24/7," Sepuloni said.

Transport Minister David Parker said he was impressed with how quickly contractors were progressing with the work. 

"This is an enormous project. This bridge, or viaduct really, is longer than a football field.

"They're going to deliver it by March next year. They've really rattled their dags to get this under way."

Parker gave the project his seal of approval, and said he was very confident any new slips would not cause any problems for the bridge.

"These piles go down as much as 45 metres to get down to the bedrock so that the bridge will be very stable.

"They're also doing land stabilisation works in the hill to the side to put in extra drains to minimise the chance of those areas slipping."

Project contractors said slips were a fact of life, and this would not be the last one that Coromandel faced.

But Thames-Coromandel mayor Len Salt hoped that the worst was behind his constituents. 

"It's been tough on so many levels.

"We're a resilient community, but this has had an impact, there's no doubt about it."

Salt said he was grateful that the project was now underway.

"There's this sense of light at the end of the tunnel, or light at the end of the bridge if you like.

"The community is still hurting but feeling optimistic at the moment."

Pauanui resident Jodie Hurst was among a group invited to take a look at the slip on Friday.

"It was awesome. I actually posted on Facebook on the way up on our Pauanui page, 'The excitement is real'.

"I never thought I'd be this excited to drive Kopu-Hikuai."

Hurst was the editor of community newspaper the Pauanui Post.

But since the slip, she had been doing most of her job remotely from Thames to be closer to her son's school in Ngatea.

"He's got other friends in the same situation that are now residing over here, so he knows he's not alone.

"It's for the best. Obviously, he'd like to be over in Pauanui with dad, but they just make up for it in the weekends."

Automotive technician Johnny Grundling was in a similar position.

After the slip, he spent six months making the almost two-hour trek from his home in Tairua to his job in Thames.

"It did get quite tiring," he said.

"Sometimes I had to stay three or four times a week over here."

One morning, he had a close call on the alternative route when a slip occurred on State Highway 25 near Whangamatā.

"It literally happened in front of me. I was the first one on the scene; I nearly went down."

In the last couple of months, the perils of the road became too much, and the family moved to Paeroa - still half an hour from Thames but a walk in the park compared to the journey through the Karangahake Gorge.

But it meant they were cut off from the friends they had made since arriving in New Zealand from South Africa three years ago, and their son was only able to see his grandparents every couple of weeks.

"It's been hard because he's very used to his grandparents, very fond of them, and all his friends were that side."

While Grundling was hopeful that the bridge would be up by March, he would not be lining up to be the first to drive across it.

"I will wait for a month or two before I try that road when it's open.

"I just don't have the confidence to do it."

Depending how settled his family felt, he said he would consider staying over the Hauraki side of the hill permanently.

With many others also weighing up their futures on the peninsula, even with a repaired road, the shape of the Coromandel community may be changed forever.