A funding deadline is bearing down on one of Westland’s most remote roads, and the district’s mayor says her ratepayers cannot be left with the bill.

The 48.6km Haast–Jackson’s Bay road is a Special Purpose Road (SPR), one of six in New Zealand under review for receiving NZTA funding.

Westland District Mayor Helen Lash says there are conversations about removing it altogether.

“That’s the big concern.”

The road costs about $1.5 million a year to maintain, largely due to weather events, with NZTA covering the bulk of that cost. Without that support, the funding burden would add about 6% to rates across a ratepayer base of fewer than 4,000.

“It’s not something that we can reduce unless we remove [it],” Lash says.

She says the most problematic stretch is the final 4.8km into the bay, where the road has been closed multiple times this season, facing “slip after slip after slip”. Rubble from slips is moved into the sea under consent from DOC and the regional council.

Lash says the road’s underlying structure compounds the problem, built by laying timber then gravelling over it, with the logs rotting over time.

“It’s like riding a boat over the waves,” she says. “You’ve sort of got that undulating presence all the way through.”

The bay serves schools, fishing and tourism industries, Māori reserves, and heritage sites, and is the only deepwater harbour on the West Coast. It is a significant area in civil defence planning for a major Alpine Fault event.

“The Australian Navy can’t anchor off Greymouth or Westport or Hokitika,” Lash says. “They need that safe harbourage, and that’s where they’ll get it.”

The investment made there over generations cannot simply be written off, she says.

“We’re talking history, we’re talking heritage, we’re talking investments across a diverse range.
“You can’t just say, ‘No, that’s it. We’ve had enough. No more.’ You’ve got to find a way to work through this.”

Lash wants NZTA board members on the ground before any decision is made.

“I would like the board to come down and view the place so they can actually make an informed decision.

“I’d like to sit down with them and work through and sort of say, ‘How do we manage this going forward?'”

The issue reaches beyond Westland. Similar Special Purpose Roads serve isolated communities in Buller and the North Island. Lash says the consequences are the same everywhere funding is withdrawn.

“Those sort of places become places where you can’t sustain those communities that currently live there. So what do you do, what do you offer them?

“Basically, if you take the funding away, you’re actually rendering their asset worthless.”

NZTA has not confirmed any final decision.

“I will be advocating very, very hard on this,” Lash says.

CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp is our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch/listen or download the CountryWide CONNECT mobile app, available on Apple iOS and Android.