Councillor says Helena Bay hill will need to close again in October
Under-promise and over-deliver. Whether it's a work deadline or your wife's birthday present, I've found it's an approach that always leads to the best results in the long-term.
My dad used to say "the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten". I guess it's the same sort of thing. He was a grocer too.
So when the council announced a further delay this week to the opening of one-lane to traffic at the titanic Helena Bay slip, a few eyebrows were raised. It was going to be June, then July and now August. When in August? Council simply doesn't know.
And councillor Steve "Tractor" Martin says the road will need to close again in October. Will it be open for Christmas? He can't guarantee it, but that's the hope.
You can't deny the size of the job. Tonnes and tonnes of boulders, rubble and clay has been blasted and chiseled and bulldozed and trucked off to God-knows-where. Landscaping shops I guess. And it's expensive. One person told me it was around $10k a day for the Kaiikanui pilot vehicles and traffic control alone. Sounds high, but I wouldn't be surprised.
And it's a messy job too. Can you imagine the muck in the middle-of-winter? Awful. Thank you to all the workers trying to clear this mess up. We know it's tough and we know you're slogging your guts out to get that mire cleaned up and open once again.
So we went to "Tractor" yesterday (Friday 24/07/26) for the latest. The key points:
There will be a public meeting at Oākura on 9th August to talk about the slip.
The plan is still for Russell Road to open to one-lane in August.
The road will need to close fully again in October with improved weather to finish.
Council doesn't know how long the second closure will be - the hope is by Christmas but that can't be guaranteed.
Cost will hit $10M total, with WDC paying around a quarter of it. Martin says this will be funded by borrowing.
You can listen to the full interview with Steve "Tractor" Martin here. Apologies for the quality of the line, after a couple of goes it was the best we could get it!
Threw a small baby shower for my sister and used the baby shower bingo cards during the gift-opening part so the older relatives had something to do.
Printed 4-to-a-page to save ink, still looked perfectly clean.