New Papatotara Coast Road opened

Goodwill and cooperation have been the base for the new Papatotara Coast Road, which was opened on Saturday by Deputy Prime Minister Bill English. Southland District Council Mayor Frana Cardno, who spoke on behalf of Council at the opening, said the entire project of relocating the road after storm damage would not have been possible without the cooperation of landowners, contractors, the New Zealand Transport Agency and Council.

Council chief executive David Adamson said the old road which ran along the coast was damaged by a storm in July/August 2007, with an estimate of $350,000 to fix. Consents were applied for, but before the work could begin, another storm in July 2008 caused significant additional damage to the road.

"The revised estimate for repair was $1,300,000 and the repaired road would still have been at risk from storm damage so Council decided to look at other options, including relocating the road using both existing land reserved for road and also across private property.

"The road needed to be fixed as it was access to the Hump Ridge Track and for farmers. It also provides access for any further development."

The option chosen utilised an existing track across land owned by Glenn and Tracy Thomas and land administered by Rowallan Alton Incorporation and cost about $950,000.

Council negotiated with the landowners and obtained consents and because of the goodwill of all parties, this process took only three months.

SouthRoads started work on the 5km of new road in mid November and access would have been available by Christmas if it wasn't for very wet weather in December. The road was open by the end of January and on budget despite the conditions on site being worse than anticipated, he said.

The work was done in three stages, with the first clearing the path through the bush and scrub. Stage two involved excavating drainage along the full length of the project, building up the road with bulk fill and then sub-base material. After about 70 percent of the sub-base was placed, the road was opened to traffic to allow it to settle and for soft areas to be identified. After three months, stage three saw the rest of the sub-base going on, particularly in the weak areas, and then a finishing layer was added.

"The road is appropriate for its use and the cooperation between all parties allowed us to do something innovative and quickly. As Mr English said at the opening, if this was happening anywhere apart from Southland, it would probably have taken much longer," Mr Adamson said.