SH4 Reconnection Project

Can-do attitude, skill and determination

PROJECT: SH4 Reconnection Project CONTRACTOR: Higgins Contractors CLIENT: Waka Kotahi, NZTA VALUE: $2m

On September 28, 2019 a catastrophic slip hit SH 4 between Whanganui and Raetihi, leaving a 400-metre wide and 200-metre high area of damage and displacing around 20 hectares of earth.

The slip left road users having to make a 1.5-hour detour to go between the two communities and dried up allimportant tourism visitors to Raetihi right before summer.

After the ground became stable Higgins moved from containment to action, hosting a meeting with Waka Kotahi and BECA engineers for an all-day planning session. An alliance of excellence was quickly formed to tackle the issue, gathering all the relevant stakeholders in active collaboration to get the work done. The highway was opened to the public two days before Christmas, and just three months after the slip.

The fantastic outcome of the Te Oreore slip project is a real-life example of excellence in planning, engineering and construction. But more than that it is a story of resilience, of people coming together and responding to a challenge by adopting a collaborative can-do attitude and performing with skill and determination to do the best job possible for their community.