Martinborough community and business leaders have begun tallying the costs of repeated transport disruptions after five bouts of bridge and road closures in the past six months. The economic impact is expected to be significant, alongside social disruption, physical damage, reduced resilience and other flowon effects.
New Zealand Transport Agency officials have offered no easy or quick solution to the Waihenga Bridge issue, hinting that a new bridge is not even in the nationwide top80 list for replacement.
The critical Waihenga Bridge over the Ruamahanga River, along with the bridges at Ponatahi, Turanganui, Lower Valley and Hurupi, have all been closed by floodwaters, slips and washouts as climate driven storms have dumped record rainfall across the region. One farmer near Pirinoa recorded 500mm in a single 24hour period in early July; another measured 332mm. Up to a dozen roads have been shut during these events.
Even the “road of last resort,” Longbush Road, has been closed by fallen trees, slips and rockfalls during recent storms, leaving southern Wairarapa temporarily cut off from the coast.
Despite this disruption, there are no plans for immediate action on the most vulnerable link — the 114yearold Waihenga Bridge. A recent safety review reduced the Ruamahanga River trigger level from 4.5 metres to 4.0 metres, the point at which the bridge is now closed to all traffic.
Deputy Mayor Rob Watson has begun calculating direct costs to local business, hospitality, farming, forestry and fishing. He said these costs stem mainly from closed bridges and flooded roads, which interrupt the transport of animals, logs, dairy output, fishing catches, food supplies and tourism access. Emergency service access is also affected.
Watson notes the district is “heavily reliant on reliable infrastructure. Five times since February this year the main bridge along SH53 has been closed, which has caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost.”
Councillor Chris Archer estimates economic output from tourism and wine production alone at around $400 million — not including farming, forestry or fishing. “This bridge is the only direct link between one of New Zealand’s premier wine regions and the rest of the country. Every closure costs real money,” he told the Times Age. A recent survey by Martinborough business owners showed $130,000 in losses over a single weekend due to the Waihenga closure.
Labour list MP Kieran McAnulty has written to NZTA warning that Waihenga Bridge is “unsafe and no longer fit for purpose.” He said NZTA should commit to replacing it, noting that closures isolate communities and disrupt residents, businesses, emergency services and visitors.
NZTA has advised there are “no current plans” for replacement. Regional relationships director Emma Speight has said the bridge still has a lifespan of up to 30 years, with 80 other highway bridges ranked ahead of it.
The district council is responsible for 140 bridges and culverts across its 671km roading network. “The majority of these critical structures were built about a century ago, which increasingly strains the council’s infrastructure budget and maintenance schedule due to flooding and heavy traffic,” SWDC notes.
With repeated closures, rising rainfall and ageing infrastructure, southern Wairarapa may soon join Northland, Coromandel, East Coast, Wairoa, Tasman and Kaikōura among the country’s most weather disrupted regions.
