NZTA confident recent rain will not affect Friday's planned State Highway 1 reopening

Wednesday, 13 December 2017

The NZTA is confident SH1 will reopen on Friday despite the current bad weather.

Authorities are confident the latest rain will not stop State Highway 1 reopening this week.

The crucial route between Christchurch and Picton is due to reopen on Friday after closing because of damage from the magnitude-7.8 earthquake in November 2016.

Tim Crow of the NZTA said the cliffs above the highway should handle bad weather much better than earlier in the year due to stabilisation work.

A wet winter hampered repair work, leading to the road reopening in a lesser condition than previously hoped.

About 23 millimetres of rain fell over Kaikōura in the 24 hours before 9pm on Wednesday, with showers remaining in the area. These are expected to ease before clearing on Thursday afternoon. The last time the area saw rain was on the November 26, when 1.8mm was recorded.

The Irongate Bridge has taken about 14 weeks to build. Shown here last week, it was sealed with asphalt today.

NZ Transport Agency earthquake recovery manager Tim Crow said though the Wednesday's rain was 'quite heavy' and 'inconvenient', they were still on track to open the highway on Friday afternoon.

**READ MORE:

Rebuild workers have made good progress since this photo was taken in October, thanks to the recent dry weather.

* SH1 The Road

* SH1 north of Kaikōura will close overnight, have unsealed sections and lane closures when it reopens

* State Highway 1: One week to go - 'we'll get there'**

Conditions are set to improve for the reopening, with MetService forecasting fine weather and a high of 25 degrees Celsius for Kaikōura on Friday.

The rain had affected some chip sealing, which meant some sites on the route would reopen unsealed.

Those would be sealed at the first fine weather window which was forecast this weekend.

Crow said about two days of chip sealing would be done at times that caused the least disruption.

He said the slopes above the road 'should perform a lot better' than they had during previous heavy rains thanks to the stabilisation work. He did not anticipate any slips.

The transport corridor needed to be resilient enough to handle weather, Crow said. Geotechs would monitor the cliffs during any bad weather.

Crow said the crews rebuilding the road were in a 'really good position' before reopening.

'We've taken advantage of the great weather we've had recently and the long daylight hours to get a lot done.'

He said the large bridge at a site known as Irongate was sealed on Wednesday. Three debris bridges further north had been sealed and were ready for traffic.

The road north of Kaikōura is scheduled to open on Friday afternoon, but will have unsealed sections, stop/go traffic control and lane closures at some sites.

It will be open from 7am to 8.30pm daily. Driving time between Christchurch and Picton is estimated at five-and-a-half hours.

Construction crews will take a break from December 15 to January 8, though drivers will go through some construction sites. Work will ramp up again in January.