Still no sign of SH16 slips being fixed in foreseeable future

The continuing saga of persistent slumps and bumps on a stretch of SH16 at Makarau doesn’t look set for a happy ending anytime soon.

For years now, drivers have been forced to decrease their speed and take evasive action to avoid two severe dips on the hill going down from Basil Orr Road to Omeru Scenic Reserve.

There have been numerous vehicles damaged after hitting the bumps at speed and several crashes in the area, including a fatal accident last November.

Local resident Steven Law has been trying to get someone in authority to take responsibility for permanently fixing the slips, contacting everyone from government ministers and agencies to contractors and police.

Over the years, he has witnessed countless accidents and had to put up with constant thumping and vibration every time a truck goes over the two damaged sections.

Most recently, he voiced his frustrations and concerns at last month’s Rodney Local Board meeting, after a more concerted effort to fix the issue last year was undermined overnight by the Auckland Anniversary floods.

“The companies doing the works are given a little plaster to put on a big wound,” he said.

“A slip has developed approximately 140 metres wide across my total property and into my neighbour’s.

“When it goes – not if, but when – SH16 will be taken out and hopefully there will not be any injuries or deaths.

“Will it take a fatal to get it fixed, as the current 30kph speed limit is not working.”

Law is not the only one to have been campaigning on the issue. This stretch of road is where roads campaigner Geoff Upson first painted penises on the road in 2019 to draw attention to the problem.

Upson, now a local board member

“There are serious underground issues there,” he said. “I spoke to one guy there who said the actual slip is 14 metres down. There’s no point fixing the surface until you address what’s underneath.”

Upson said it needed to be treated like major slips in the Coromandel or Brynderwyns, or the road surface would simply keep dropping.

A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said the Omeru under-slip was in the middle of a large, deep-seated landslip that the agency had been aware for some time and had been consistently monitoring. Contractors were due on-site last week, levelling the site again.

“While there was an investment made to fix it last year, contributing factors including ground material and recent weather events meant the repair prematurely failed,” they said.

“Waka Kotahi is currently investigating options to address the wider SH16 network resilience needs as part of a national resilience programme.”