It could cost up to $90 million to fix roads in Marlborough devastated by July’s storm, with many residents facing years of disruption.
On Tuesday, roading contractors and council officials met with residents of Kenepuru Sound, which was the worst-hit by the storm.
The damage to their road was so bad that until recently, residents could only leave the Marlborough Sounds by boat.
Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency’s Emma Speight told residents seeing the damage in person was “sobering”.
She said at a community meeting that it would take between $60-90 million to restore the Marlborough roading network to the condition it was previously.
Many residents at the meetings were frustrated by what they perceived as the slow progress of repairs and poor communication from officials, especially in the early stages.
“It’s nice to see you all but we’ve had 21 weeks. You say a lot of work's been done but we haven't seen it out here,” one resident said.
The impact on people’s daily lives, businesses and mental health has been significant in what is a remote part of the Marlborough Sounds.
Resident Adrian Harvey says the level of emotional distress is high.
“I know one person who personally had a mental breakdown about the fact he couldn't get in and out so he decided to abandon the Sounds and moved to Nelson.”
Kenepuru Road was reopened to residents just last week, but they can only travel at certain times of the day. The public isn’t expected to have access to the road until the start of next year.
It will also need to be fully closed again for some major repairs, with residents promised at least two weeks’ notice.
Speight says they’re hoping to limit disruptions as much as possible.
“If the weather's good, if we get no more major rain events, we'd hope we could keep it down to under a month, but we won't know until we have those final designs,” she said.
But the disruption will continue for some time, with the roads not expected to be fully repaired until mid-2023 – two years on from the storm.
Marlborough District Council recovery manager Dean Hefford says some of the damage to the roads is incredibly complex.
“I'm hoping they're going to be able to shorten some of those time frames but of course, it depends when they start the major repairs on some of the key sites what they find.”
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