Northlanders are fed-up with the condition of their state highways and say they deserve better. SH1 to Kaitaia could be shut for another year after the recent storm damaged the road and the alternative route isn't reliable either.
Far North District Councillor, Felicity Foy says it’s not good enough for taxpayers.
It comes as Waka Kotahi has released pictures to 1News, revealing the damage from this month's storm.
“We've got a number of slips through the Mangamuka Gorge, more than we had at our previous event, so we've got six of those slips that have fully closed the state highway," says Waka Kotahi’s Jacqui Hori-Hoult.
The state highway reopened last year after a once-in-a-500-year weather event in 2020 closed it for 12 months.
No one knows how long it will take to fix it again.
"We can't tell this time because we are still in the response phase and I really appreciate that that's quite difficult for our local community," Hori-Hoult says.
The costs of repeated closures are piling up, with 60 farmers having to dump all their milk when both highways north were shut.
"The tankers weren't able to cross the Mangamuka Gorge, it would've been hundreds of thousands of litres down the drain for us Northland farmers," a local farmer told 1News.
Every month the gorge is closed costs Mangonui Haulage $80,000.
"It's extra fuel extra road user charges and extra time really adds more time on to a guys day so they're not as productive," says company spokesperson Sean Sparkman.
State Highway 10 through Kerikeri is the only alternative route north and in bad weather it's often closed due to flooding and slips. The eastern route will see an additional 1300 vehicles a day using it and some are large trucks weighing up to 50 tonnes.
The extra traffic passing through communities like Doubtless Bay.
"You've got a lot of activity going on and kids getting dropped off - as you see someone just going past at great speed there, it's pretty dangerous and that puts a lot of pressure on everyone here," says resident Mark Osbourne.
"There's going be a huge increase in traffic and of course more wear and tear on this highway which is suffering anyway," Sparkman says.
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