For holidaymakers taking the long road to the Coromandel this long weekend — with kids in the back screaming "are we there yet?" – here's some encouraging news.
No, State Highway 25A — ravaged by January's weather tempest — won't be reopened before Christmas, but the kids need to know major repairs are on the right side of deadline and perhaps even a little ahead of it.
The last of the steel girders for a 124-metre bridge needed to span a huge landslide have been lifted into place — a significant milestone for the project which will reconnect the east and west coasts of the peninsula and stop motorists having to endure alternate routes, adding up to 45 minutes to their journey.
"We know locals want this road open as quickly as possible and we are doing everything we can to get it open," Waka Kotahi regional manager for infrastructure delivery Jo Wilton told Seven Sharp.
She said the bridge "will definitely be ready" by its March 31, 2024, deadline, adding that "it's looking likely it could be slightly earlier than that".
And before the kids demand to know how much earlier, Wilton said there "will still be some of summer left" upon its completion.
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