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Council reopens road, and more, ahead of schedule

Click to enlarge
Mayor John Law shown with piece of armco removed from the culvert. It was flood damage and the corrosion shown here that caused the road to be closed temporarily.

PRESS RELEASE
OREWA, 6TH MARCH 2007
AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION.

But wait there’s more!
Council reopens road, and more, ahead of schedule.

Each cloud having a silver lining certainly holds true after the recent closure of East Coast Road and the quick work by Rodney District Council staff and contractors in getting the root problem fixed and the road reopened inside of a week.

The road was closed on Saturday 24th February after a council inspection revealed a culvert beneath the road was corroding and recent flooding around it was destabilising the road surface.

The council ordered the temporary closure as a precautionary safety measure for motorists and to protect the area’s important infrastructure, including two major pipelines supplying water to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

Council contractors Fulton Hogan and Hiway Stabilizers worked with roading consultant Hutchison Consultants and concrete providers Atlas Concrete to stabilise the culvert floor.

љMore than 105 cubic metres of reinforced concrete were used and, at the peak of the work. concrete trucks were arriving every 10 minute at the site.

In addition to the stabilising work, contractors also took the opportunity to remove the severely corroded sections of the culvert (see picture).

But that’s far from all that was done while the road was closed. Rodney District Council traffic safety manager Gareth Hughes who oversaw the project explains.

“While our contractors’ workers were doing the initial work they noticed a large number of fish in the area and that triggered some concern that the raised concrete floor of the repaired culvert would prevent this fish having access through the culvert.”

The answer, says Hughes, was for the workers to incorporate into the new floor a special channel just for the fish. Moreover, special ramps, complete with rest baffles for fish, were incorporated at each end of the culvert to improve both water and fish flow.

While that was happening in the culvert below, above ground WaterCare engineers were checking the stability of their water pipes; no problems were detected.

Rodney mayor John Law, who visited the site on Thursday at the peak of the concrete pour, says he was astounded at the amount of work going on and the diligence shown by contracting staff in what Mr Law described as appalling conditions.

“But even with all that hard work going on, I really thought it would be another week at least before we could reopen that road safely for the public.

“To get the message last Saturday that we were reopening then and there with a stable culvert complete with new fish flows and a resealed road above was just unbelievable.

“This was a brilliantly managed project and I think we as a council and as a community owe a debt of thanks to everybody involved.”

ENDS

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