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Ahuroa Road in Pūhoi was severely damaged in early 2023 with eight large slip sites occurring during the major storm events of Auckland Anniversary weekend and Cyclone Gabrielle.
The road was closed to all but residents after a major slip at the top effectively split the community in half, leaving some residents facing a lengthy commute to work and school.
Rodney Local Board chair Brent Bailey thanked the Pūhoi community for their patience while the complex road repairs were undertaken.
“Our Pūhoi community has been severely impacted because of the substantial damage caused by the storms,” he says.
“It has taken a long time to fix and reopen this road because of the difficult terrain and the challenges caused by the many slips.
“Huge thanks to the roading contractors who have worked tirelessly to engineer solutions and restore this important access for our community.”
Auckland Transport’s Road Asset Maintenance group manager Alan Wallace says the completion of this road repair project has been a significant milestone.
“We’re very pleased to have completed the repair of the last of the major slips and returned the road to the community,” he says.
“Downer NZ and Mason Contractors construction teams have worked through all sorts of weather conditions to carry out these repairs in difficult terrain.
“The largest job was a highly technical $6.6 million concrete palisade wall with 166 piles between 12 metres and 17 metres deep and 480 metres of soil nail anchors installed to stabilise the site.”
Downer NZ contract manager Samantha Riley says the repair work was a high priority because of the impact the road closure had on the closely connected rural community.
“We’re extremely pleased with the outcome, and grateful to be a part of reconnecting the pathway between Pūhoi and Ahuroa.” she says.
“A key achievement was enabling some of our youngest community members, children, to safely return to Ahuroa School.”
