17/05/2024
Current workload atm…..😎💯
Mangamuka Gorge update: We've started excavation on slip A11, one of the critical slip sites on State Highway 1 through Mangamuka Gorge.
This slip repair differs from the concrete pile retaining walls we're installing for most of the other slips in the gorge. As part of the repair, we need to realign the road away from this slip-prone site. To do that, workers are removing more than 30,000 cubic metres of material from Maungataniwha Range – approximately 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of earth. The material will be taken to a local site at the southern side of the ranges.
Due to the safety and environmental controls in place, the excavations are dependent on us having good weather. We expect the work to take approximately a month to complete.
We've put a huge amount of planning into these repairs, and it'll be highly intensive for the workers over a short period of time. Large excavators, bulldozers, and huge six-wheeled articulated dump trucks that you can see in the bottom photo below have arrived onsite. The dump trucks have started to take the excavated material to the bottom of the gorge, and from there the material is transferred onto road-legal six-wheeler trucks and taken to the fill site.
While we're doing this, the southern gate at the Mangamuka Scenic Reserve has been moved 600 metres south. The truck movements cover approximately seven kilometres of SH1 from the southern gate to the fill site. We've put traffic controls in place to minimise disruption. If you're in the Mangamuka area you'll see an increase in truck movements over the coming weeks. Once the works are complete, we'll return the southern gate to its original location.
The team have worked hard to prepare for the arrival of this machinery – the excavations earthworks underway in the top photo below. A few weeks ago we published an update about how we’ve carefully cleared the site of vegetation and relocated wildlife: https://www.facebook.com/nztanorthland/posts/pfbid02ogfnud1jRr9ZpMNGA5ZWaEQQ5xPTqV7Rvy7GNvxqfVgtLVnNK1suKSE3N5D3CL2al
We expect SH1 through Mangamuka Gorge to reopen by Christmas this year. You can keep up to date with our work on Mangamuka Gorge by signing up to our email newsletter. Visit our website to sign up, and to find out more about the project: https://nzta.govt.nz/sh1-mangamuka-gorge-slip-repairs/
