Gisborne road work to drop from early 2027 as TREC ends

A busy roading season lies ahead for the Gisborne district as a programme to repair cyclone and storm-damaged roads wraps up.

Gisborne District Council also plans to spend $4.6 million on roadworks from October 1.

Councillors received updates on projects and funding applications at the local transport meeting last week.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi principal project manager Richard Bayley said Transport Rebuild East Coast (Trec) alliance’s project work was 96% completed and on track to finish in December.

Trec works at Makarika, Wairoa River sites and Te Puia Springs had finished or were near completion.

Beam and bore work on the replacement Hikuwai No 1 Bridge (near Tolaga Bay) was to be finished by Christmas, while work at Mangahauini Gorge (between Tokomaru Bay and Te Pua Hot Springs) would be completed, depending on the weather, following seal and pavement work in spring.

Work at seven sites between Whakaangiangi and Pōtaka following the January weather event was on schedule to finish over summer.

Bayley said Trec would not have an active presence once work was done, but crews would return to address issues, such as potholes.

After the meeting, Māori ward councillor Rawinia Parata said the works had provided reassurance for communities, particularly Tokomaru Bay whānau.

She hoped TREC would pass on knowledge to build regional resilience.

“I want to know how we can develop skills, the labour market, develop our contractors, where the gaps have been that have made this process harder than it needs to be, and how can we avoid that happening in the future.”

Bayley said at the meeting that challenges included finding accommodation, skilled workers and transporting high-quality goods to remote sites.

Lessons learned would be shared with NZTA and the council.

The council had invested $36.6m in road maintenance in the 2026 financial year, including $26.9m in pothole prevention, according to a report for the meeting prepared by executive assistant for community lifelines Lana McGuiness.

Total roading investment was $59.86m, including $23.2m of emergency works delivered through business-as-usual funding.

Councillor Larry Foster asked whether enough work would remain for local contractors on council sites after Trec ended.

“I know we can’t give them work when there’s no work there, but at the same time, if we do have another major event, which is pretty much on the cards, we’ll be scratching to find skilled people to go out there and do the work.”

Director community lifelines Tim Barry said council, NZTA and Trec work would noticeably decrease from early 2027.

The council was discussing the issue with contractors, as the construction environment created by Trec was larger than normally sustainable.

“We’ve proven that we can flex up [but] we’ve got to also rightsize down again, and it is a down, and that can be a painful bunch of decisions. Competent contractors are ahead of the curve in that space,” Barry said.

Barry said the council had allocated $4.6m for the roading season, including $1.45m for economic corridors on Waimata Valley and Hokoroa roads.

Staff were negotiating with forestry companies using the routes to provide further funding.

If work was not complete by December 2026, the funding would return to NZTA.

Other projects included sealing almost 35km of roads across Waipaoa, Hikurangi, Tūranga and Ūawa.

Councillor Colin Alder said this represented about 4.4% of the region’s 800km sealed network and he asked whether the rate of work was fast enough.

Barry said national direction was for a 7% rate of work, meaning future planning and funding would need to address the gap.

According to the meeting report, the council had also submitted an initial Activity and Assets Plan application to NZTA, seeking funding for 2027 to 2037.

Gisborne’s 1899km local roading network received two-thirds of its funding from NZTA’s National Land Transport Programme, with the remainder coming from the council’s Long Term Plan.

Barry said the application was based on need and incoming rate-capping settings.

Funding would be refined following rate changes and confirmation of the Long Term Plan.

Maintenance, applications and roading corridors would remain the team’s focus for the next three months, according to the meeting report.

Parata said rural communities were not asking for state-of-the-art motorways, but safe and reliable roads.

“It doesn’t all have to be tarsealed and lined, but it needs to not be damaging the vehicle and not be scary to drive on.”

Reliable roads provided food, services, certainty and improved wellbeing, she said.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.