Lichfield St businesses finally free of roadworks and ‘ready to roll’

Saturday, 31 May 2025

Earl restaurant founder Tom Newfield talks about Lichfield St near the new stadium reopening.

The street is clear, the food is hot and the pints are cold - Lichfield St businesses in central Christchurch are eager to welcome back customers after being buried for a year in roadworks.

It has been a “devastating” period of feeling cut off from the city and enduring their worst trading during road works around the new stadium.

But Lichfield St is now fully open for vehicles and pedestrians and is looking swish.

The wide walkable street has newly planted trees and plants and offers a close up view of the enormous One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha, which stands at the east end and yes, there are plenty of car parks nearby.

It is not just a road upgrade for the retail and hospitality businesses there, but the end of a long, hard chapter. They say they experienced sales drop as much as 70% while the streets were improved and century-old water pipes replaced ahead of the stadium’s opening.

From left; Dux Central owner Richard Sinke, Earl restaurant founder Tom Newfield, Pot Sticker Dumpling Bar owner Jason Dodd and Dux Central operations manager Ross Herrick, all eager to welcome customers to the new-look Lichfield St.

“Last week was the worst week we've had in seven years,” said Earl restaurant founder Tom Newfield.

He said it showed the “delayed” effect still hitting businesses even after the road reopened because people were accustomed to avoiding the area.

Earl restaurant founder Tom Newfield said staff could not contain their excitement and gave a standing applause and cheered during their regular team meeting announcing that road would fully open last week.

“We almost didn't come,” was feedback Newfield heard often from the customers who did brave the confusing navigation of road cones and closures to visit during the works.

Customers regularly showed up late, so staff started adding an extra half hour to bookings just to allow time for people to navigate the road works to get there.

But now those obstacles had eased, he said businesses were ready to thrive.

“We've reduced all the hurdles, the road’s wide open two ways and we're ready to roll,” he said.

Pot Sticker Dumpling Bar owner Jason Dodd pictured in November when the surrounding stadium streets roadworks backed right up to his store.

“It's beautiful … it feels like a whole new area.”

The reopening of the road both ways prompted one word to come to mind for Pot Sticker Dumpling Bar owner Jason Dodd: “Freedom”.

Lichfield St business owners are focused on a simple message: we’re open for business.

The roadworks had been “devastating” for his business. He previously told The Press one bleak Saturday prompted only nine food orders before 6pm, of 54 in total, turning over $2400 in place where$7000 was typical. The situation had been “dire”.

At times, up to 12 surrounding streets were all reduced to one lane during construction, he said.

“People were giving up … so now that [the roads] are going to open up, we’ve got a little gateway of people coming in to be curious and hopefully they remember ‘I haven’t been here for a while and how good your food is’.”

Dux Central owner Richard Sinke said the last year had been tough given that a country-wide recession drove “purchasing power way down” and the roadworks had been a “double whammy”.

The tram passes through the new-look Lichfield St.

“We’re open, we've been open all the time, and we really want people's support,” Sinke said.

Dux operations manager Ross Herrick said that the contractors Isaac Construction had “done a great job” . The project was expected to take 18 months but the bulk of the work would now be done by July - six months ahead of schedule.

The $34 million project to make roads around the stadium more pedestrian-friendly originally planned to make Lichfield St one-way, which did not survive a council hearings process after prominent city developers Philip Carter and Shaun Stockman threatened to delay projects and stop investing in the city if it went ahead.

The Lichfield St business owners said there were multiple parking and transport options to reach their stores. There was a parking building on the street, four Wilson Parking sites within 200m, The Crossing carpark a short walk away, taxi and Uber zones out front, and cheap buses or the tram which goes right past, Newfield said.