Tourism businesses in Westland are relieved that a storm-damaged section of State Highway 6 is reopening after being closed for almost two weeks.
The main highway along the West Coast closed between Haast and Lake Moeraki on November 9 when record-breaking rain pummelled the region, causing slips, rockfall and cracking in the highway.
Westland mayor Helen Lash said the district’s economy had taken a massive hit — losing more than $1 million each day since the road closed.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi central South Island system manager Mark Pinner said all safety-critical rock blasting and scaling work north of Haast at Epitaph Slip area was complete, and the road was set to reopen from 10am today.
“The rock scaling and explosives team has been working continually since Monday last week to make this site safe for it to reopen.
“As well as removing rocks which directly threatened the highway, using air bags, explosives and helicopter sluicing, they have also tackled a number of other unstable rock faces around this section of highway, with more to come to provide some future-proofing.
“It is never convenient to close a highway and the start of the summer tourism season was particularly unwelcome this year. But we need to be confident the route is safe,” Pinner said.
Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne told Morning Report the closure was frustrating given how good the summer season had been looking.
“Bookings were great, on the back of really strong recovery last year and this is just a real hit and it’s likely to have an ongoing impact as people start to lose confidence in our roading system here.
“We are getting questions asked about the resilience of our roading system here and it will have an impact this summer, no question.”
However the West Coast remained popular with international tourists and some tours would be back, Milne said.
Lash said the road closure had been tough on tourism businesses and the economy.
“When it first closed we were looking at probably around a $1.8 million a day loss, and that’s certainly gone up because by now we would’ve had 12 to 13 buses a day coming through, we would’ve had a lot more tourists on the road.
“I know the offshoot of the tourists not getting here is it’s put pressure on Christchurch, Queenstown, Wanaka and everywhere for accommodation because all these people have gone elsewhere,” she said.
Lash said it was it wonderful that tourists would be able to access the whole region again.
“We’re very grateful for those that did still drive around the long way to come and visit the coast, but this of course means that they can just carry on their business now and come down and enjoy the whole coast … Franz Josef has still had quite a bit of business, Fox [Glacier] has been very quiet, so it’s just wonderful that the road is going to be open and we can welcome everybody wholeheartedly.”
Lash said a “colossal” amount of work had gone into getting the road open with crews working daylight to dark.
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