Road to nowhere causes chaos for cut-off communities

Almost three weeks after Cyclone Gabrielle, widespread damage continues to cause disruption in rural areas, not least Puhoi, which flooded yet again on February 24 after being deluged on January 27. One of the biggest frustrations is being caused by the closure of Ahuroa Road between Puhoi and Ahuroa. AT has completely closed a 750-metre stretch of the road from just west of J Tolhopf Road, blocking it with containers and bollards while engineers assess volatile slips.

As a result, through traffic is having to detour via SH 1, Warkworth and Woodcocks/West Coast Road. However, that route has also been closed for lengthy periods of time for repairs to West Coast Road, meaning drivers could only travel west and south, via Kaukapakapa and Silverdale.

Ahuroa residents say this has effectively cut them off from everything they need, from work and shops to medical providers and petrol stations.

The road closure is causing most stress for Ahuroa School, where students and some staff are having to travel for more than an hour each way, instead of a previous 15-minute bus ride from Puhoi.

The 80-student school started its year with no power, no buses and no email, and principal Terry Taylor was unable to contact several families. In a message to parents, he said he was in discussion with the Ministry of Education to try to find temporary solutions, including allowing students to be temporarily enrolled at other schools.

“At this stage we remain in an emergency situation and lateral thinking, coupled with common sense is required,” he said. “It is difficult to predict how long it will take to remedy the situation until we get reliable communication.”

Ahuroa resident Rhys Joule agreed that the most frustrating aspect of the road closures was a lack of information or updates from AT.

“Although we are very distressed at being cut off, our hearts go out to those far more severely impacted. We also accept that the solution to the road damage will not be a simple fix,” he said. “The problem and thing that causes the most stress is that the key to our salvation is AT.

“In the two weeks between the weather events, we had virtually no contact from AT regards the Ahuroa Road closure. No sense of what the plan was, what the comms plan was going to be. We even had to chase AT to put signage up at the entrance points to Ahuroa Road so people would know they couldn’t get through access.”

Joule said regular, meaningful updates were needed, as well as a reassurance that fixing and reopening Ahuroa Road was a priority for AT – at present, the community felt abandoned.

An AT spokesperson said he had requested an update from recovery staff, but nothing specific to Ahuroa Road had been received as our paper went to press – just the following statement from the AT website: “We know that there are some locations that are causing inconvenience to residents due to detours and closed roads. We want to reassure you that we’ve deployed as many resources as possible to work on these sites to enable access as soon as possible, but there are roads that will take significant time to fully repair. We ask for your patience as we have many sites across the region that have significant damage.”

Rodney Councillor Greg Sayers could also get no joy when he asked for an AT liaison to meet with local residents, with a staff member telling him that in a State of Emergency, only essential travel should be undertaken.