Hinekura Road Realignment Project

Hinekura Road Relief Fund
The Council launched a $20,000 Hinekura Road Relief Fund to ease the immediate burden on Hinekura residents. East Coast Rural Support Trust is administering the Fund. Residents can apply to the fund for immediate relief from costs that have resulted from the landslide. Ministry of Primary Industries has also made available a small amount to subsidise these costs from what is left from their Cyclone Dovi funds. Residents can email Sarah Donaldson at wairaraparst@gmail.com to access these funds.

Community Meeting
Council held a community meeting on Wednesday 29 June to hear from residents and discuss the effect of the landslide on them and local businesses. A number of central government agency representative, WSP and GWRC staff were present, as were elected members and Council officials.

WSP shared with them their preliminary suggestions for the new Hinekura Road alignment. The most promising routes that they wished to start exploring were the red and light blue routes. They are working with local landowners whose land these routes cross to seek permission and receive local knowledge/advice.

Hinekura Road Realignment Preliminary Options – June 2022

Hinekura Road Residents Meeting Minutes – 29 June 2022

Admiral Hill Road Access
Maintenance work was carried out on the alternative route via Admiral Hill to sustain extra traffic over a longer period. The road can be treacherous during bad weather and several actions such as smoothing out sharp corners, cutting back foliage for better visibility and new signage were completed. This is a continuous work programme as the road is impacted each time there is heavy rain.

Admiral Road has cattle access across it and there are five farm gates that need to be opened AND closed should anyone wish to drive through.

Community Support
The Rural Support Trust compiled a community and services database so the community is able to be connected to the right services. The Ministry of Education has worked with residents to adjust school bus routes where needed.

Road Realignment Funding
Council fast-tracked funding for the engineered design plans to be completed by the engineering firm, WSP. Engineered plans will allow Council to apply for consents and legal permissions, funding from Waka Kotahi and then go to tender for the build.

Farm Track Access
Preliminary funding was applied for to support creating a private farm track that would give local residents a slightly shorter, though limited, access to Martinborough. Council approved $100,000 which has been fully utilised. Additional funding is to be sought from Council on 26 October 2022 to finish the job.

Admiral Hill Road Access
The council roading team continued work on Admiral Hill Road to make it safer. Works include enlarging corners, laying metal, widening pinch points, clearing fallen trees and slips and installing stock warning signs and road edge signs.

Community Support
Whatu Ora provided vaccination services onsite at Hinekura Hall.

Hinekura Hall Refurbishment
Funding of $30,000 from the Department of Internal Affairs has been made available to refurbish the Hinekura Hall so it can be used as a social, logistics, and emergency hub. The funds have been made available to Council and renovations will commence as soon as the weather allows.

Road Realignment Planning
WSP has undertaken a geological and geotechnical investigation and worked with the Council and landowners to assess realignment options and develop a proposed project timeline. The new Council is to be sworn in on 26 October and after that WSP and Council will present these to the Council and the community at an agreed time and location.

Hinekura Road Realignment Options Assessment

Hinekura Road Proposed Project Timeline

There are a number of risks that may impact progress. For example, outcomes of the geotechnical assessments/monitoring/investigations and consenting, as well as the availability of the right experts at the right time for these technical tasks.

Alternative Access
The farm track was completed and open for residents to use. Non residents are still able to use the Admiral Hill access. The Council roading team has continued work to ensure this route remains open and safe for all traffic.

Council approved an additional $40,000 for the farm track project.

WSP completed the economic cost benefit analysis and options report.

A community meeting was held to discuss the options.

A survey was sent to residents asking for their preferred option. See the survey results.

The Council’s Infrastructure Community Services Committee will be meet in June to discuss the options and community feedback before providing recommendations to Council for a final decision.

Currently the Council is trying to procure a robust geotechnical evaluation that will let us better understand the level of risk in rebuilding the road through the slip zone. 

WSP have submitted their updated proposal for a geotechnical risk assessment, along with indicative estimates for project set up costs. We are weighing up the costs and time involved. 

There are other options, including assessing risk as we undertake the build.  We are taking advice from Waka Kotahi on whether that meets their needs, and early conversations indicate that it may. 

Waka Kotahi is very kindly offering us peer review and alternative optioneering utilising their expertise in this field.  We met with a senior geotechnical engineer this week to receive advice on contracting and procuring in this type of situation.

Ultimately, whatever we do, the risk of failure from ongoing movement will rest with the Council.   Any road design would have to be completed on the understanding that the design life is less than normal, and that the road could be compromised by movement of the land slide at any time.

Maintenance works are still carrying on the alternative route under normal maintenance activities.  In the previous month, we have successfully finished road repairs on Admiral Road. Currently, we are working to fix the dropouts on Clifton Grove Road, with the primary goal of enhancing the stability of the soft pavement sections. Last month contractors also applied AP65 aggregate to reinforce the road resilience.  Looking ahead, we have scheduled maintenance works for Wainuioru Road, Ngakonui Road, and Moeraki Road in the upcoming months. It’s worth noting that these roads underwent a thorough inspection by Fulton Hogan last month.

We appreciate the delays in progress have been causing residents stress, particularly in the lead up to one of the busiest times in the agricultural calendar. Costs continue to escalate and fuel costs are impacting farm businesses and households – and this is even harder for Hinekura residents, who are obliged to often use the much longer transport route via Admiral Hill. 

Council has decided, on advice from Waka Kotahi, to advance with construction of the road simultaneously with a geotechnical assessment of risk of possible road failure. This will mean the road will be constructed as quickly as possible once a contractor is assigned. 

Council is issuing an Advanced Notice of tender to the market on 20 October 2023. We are pleased to share an advance copy of the Notice with you as attached. Next steps are to issue a tender before Christmas, and we would expect the tender to be open for three weeks.

In the meantime, we urge people to remain patient and not to attempt any work on the road reconstruction themselves. Unauthorised work on the build site could delay the contractor making a start by damaging the site, and possibly endanger lives and property.   

Once we get a contractor on board, it will be an opportunity to hold a community meeting where they can walk everyone through their work programme.

This report (pages 193-198) will be presented at Wednesdays Council meeting, prior to the tender process commencing. This is expected to close before the Christmas holiday period and we will move forward with the process to appoint a contractor as quickly as possible after that.

After a successful advance notice period with good interest and response, we’re confident we’ll find great contractor to partner with. Once we have them on board we will organise a community meeting to bring you all across the next steps.

We’re sharing today that the Request For Tender (RFT) for the Hinekura Road Remediation is now out. 

Below is the timeline we’re working towards. You can find this and supporting information on our website under the ‘2023 Tender documents‘.
– Deadline for questions from suppliers: 07 December 2023
– Deadline for the buyer to answer suppliers’ questions: 10 December 2023

– Deadline for proposals: 12pm, 14 December 2023

– Short-listed tenderers interviews: 18-20 December 2023
– Preferred tenderer notified: 21 December 2023
– Respondents’ debriefs: week starting 15 January 2024
– Anticipated physical works start date: January 2024 (please note: while this is anticipated at this stage, we will know more once tenderers respond) 

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We’re happy to share that the tender process for the rebuild of Hinekura Road has been completed. Final approvals have been received and the contract has been awarded to Brownell Earthmoving Limited.

Brownell are keen to get started in the New Year. The first step will be to complete their design work. They have brought on a geotechnical specialist who will be providing engineering advice on the project.

In January, we will continue to provide ongoing communications on the rebuild workplan. We will also be reporting regularly on progress via relevant Council meetings.

Brownell Earthmoving Ltd are making great progress on the road realignment, and at this stage the work is anticipated to be completed in March.