Never has Marlborough faced a roading recovery effort to the scale it does at present.

As bad weather has continued to hamper the region’s Road to Recovery this past weekend, the latest data to hand from Marlborough Roads shows the scale of the operation to date.

As at August 30, 40,000 cubic metres of spill material has been removed from sites throughout Marlborough. Thirty trucks and twenty five excavators are working across the district and more than 400 workers have been site inducted and are now able to work as part of the roading recovery effort.

Marlborough Roads manager Steve Murrin said more than 1000 issues have been identified across the network including 200 under slips, 350 over slips, 24 structures and 125 culverts damaged. “It’s the worst damage I have seen in more than 30 years of involvement in Marlborough’s road network,” he said.

“We have a number of priorities – these include full access up the Awatere Valley to allow for stock and feed movements, good access through Queen Charlotte Drive to at least Linkwater and then ultimately single lane access to Havelock through Cullens Point. Single-lane light-vehicle access for residents and essential services into the Kenepuru is also a high priority,” he said.

Work on all of these priority sites is happening simultaneously and recovery crews have been able to work during Alert Level 4 under an exemption from the Government. The roading network is still fragile, still changing and remains vulnerable. Anyone who chooses to ignore the road closures in place does so at their own risk and liability.

These efforts paused at the weekend while heavy rain passed through the region. Poor weather has continued in some areas today.

The bad weather forced the closure of the Croisilles-French Pass Road by the top of Ronga Road (6km from Okiwi Bay) due to a large slip. Crews are working to clear these by the end of the day. Top Valley Road is currently closed and there is no road access, following rain over the weekend.

More slips also came down on the already damaged Kenepuru Road and Queen Charlotte Drive at the weekend but none were major. There were also small slips on Port Underwood Road, encroaching but not blocking the road.

For Roading Updates:

For the status of a road, please visit our Marlborough Emergency Management Official Public Information Map here https://bit.ly/RoadToRecoveryMarl before your journey, and stay up to date on the latest roading alerts here: https://bit.ly/RoadingAlertsMarl

Alternatively, contact Marlborough Roads on 0800 213 213 or 03 520 8024 between 8.00 am - 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday, or email the recovery team at recovery@marlboroughroads.com

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