By Maia Hart - Local Democracy Reporter
The main highway between Blenheim and Nelson is on track to reopen on Wednesday, while the alternative State Highway 63 route will take longer to fix because of a washed out bridge.
Contractors have worked around the clock after a three-day deluge in the top of the south caused flooding and slips that closed both highways.
The Blenheim to Rai Valley section of State Highway 6 was due to reopen at 10am on Tuesday and Waka Kotahi said the aim was still to have the full route to Nelson (from Rai Valley to Hira) open by Wednesday, weather permitting.
However, SH63 would not reopen until at least the week of September 12.
Waka Kotahi top of the south system manager Andrew James said a significant amount of work needed to be done to make SH63 ready for use, and a major part of that work was fixing part of the Branch River Bridge which was washed-out.
“This has required significant river diversion work to shift the river channel away from the bridge’s approach and abutments,” James said.
He said that diversion work was completed over the weekend. It meant work crews now had a dry work area to rebuild the washed out section.
“Currently, work crews have to shift a substantial amount of material to do this, and because of the washout, access to the site is limited,” he said.
He said Waka Kotahi had decided to do a permanent fix for the Branch River bridge instead of a temporary one, given that SH6 was due to reopen this week.
“Because of this, the work requires a much more involved and detailed process and will take longer to complete.
“However, it will mean that further prolonged closures won’t be needed at this site.”
The northern closure point on SH63 was at Leatham Rd, with the highway remaining closed between Leatham Rd and Saint Arnaud.
In announcing the “optimistic” reopening of SH6, James said damage to the road had been significant and when it did reopen there would be temporary speed restrictions, lane closures and traffic management in place at several locations.
He said people should factor in longer journey times, and delays, when planning their travel.
A contractor helping repair road infrastructure on the Whangamoa Saddle last week said there were too many slips to count on the hilly section of the highway between Nelson and Blenheim.
“I lost count going over ... between 30 and 50 slips of varying sizes, a lot of those small ones that will take five minutes to clear, others are more significant," contractor Allan Hoult said.
