NZTA Moves to Long-Term Solutions in Waioweka Gorge

NZTA said crews in the Waioweka Gorge are starting to implement final fixes aimed at preventing future slips.

NZTA Bay of Plenty Area Manager Maintenance and Operations Sandra King said the Gorge is a vulnerable piece of terrain with multiple slip sites still being addressed. 

Last week NZTA warned motorists further preventative closures could be put in place this winter. 

Despite this, King said crews will be moving into the next phase of work in the coming weeks.

She said, the next phase of work is the recovery phase, or "putting in place more permanent solutions to address those slip locations."

At the Goldsmith slip site, night investigations will be carried out before installing a rock fall net.

The net is designed to capture and channel debris into a fence at the bottom of the slip face, which will then be manually cleared out by NZTA crews.  

"We had our geotechs look at it and they look at the risk, they look at the profile of the slope."

"There's a number of different designs to accommodate the risk and this approach is the best solution to deal with the risk that we've got at that site."

To install this, night closures will be required. 

"We're working on the plan on that to ensure we're still making the gorge route accessible to freight and road users," she said. 

NZTA said the gorge is currently open 24/7 under stop/go conditions and advises motorists to expect delays of up to one hour. 

It said the road can still close at short notice if conditions change. 

"The crews move quickly to stabilise things, but at times we may need to close the road at short notice if there's slip activity due to weather to support safe operations and people's safety in the gorge as well," King said.