SH3 reopens following Taranaki flooding
123rf
SH3 north of Taranaki has reopened between Mōkau and Piopio.
The route has been closed following heavy rain in the region that caused
widespread flooding and slips.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said a single lane opened from Sunday under traffic management, which will be in place over the coming week to allow for clean up.
Further south, on SH3 at Mount Messenger, the southbound lane remains closed following a slip under the road.
While the other main route north out of Taranaki, SH43 - The Forgotten Highway - is closed between Whangamomona and Tamarunui due to a slip.
NZTA said geotechnical experts are expected on site in the next couple of days.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
'Dodge a bullet': New Plymouth mayor relieved after heavy rainfall spared most
Flooding at Puke Ariki Landing in New Plymouth. Photo: ROBIN MARTIN / RNZ A small number of South Taranaki residents are still cut off after the weekend's deluge . Two-hundred and eight millimetres of rain fell over 24 hours across the region over the weekend, but South Taranaki Mayor Phil Nixon told RNZ the district has held up "pretty well" given the extensive flooding . Nixon said the priority now was to get roads reopened, as some people still had no access in or out. "We certainly do have a few. We still haven't got a number of how many, but opening up the Waitotara Valley Road at the weekend we're freed up a few. "But there are still some people isolated at this stage,." Several roads remained closed across Taranaki, and only one lane was open through Mt Messenger due to a large slip. Phil Nixon. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Nixon said some rivers, such as the Waitotara, were at their absolute maximum levels. "It was at 10.5m and the tipping point is 11m, so we were very close, and that's what we were up against. We had the odd blocked culvert, but in the main we were at the max and managed to dodge a bullet." In the town of Eltham, a car was submerged in floodwaters and the large lake-like pool was dubbed 'Lake Eltham' by locals . "We had a huge pile-up of water in the centre of Eltham… we've got an investigation to do there," Nixon said. Meanwhile, New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom was nervous about the region's resilience after stormy weather cut off arterial routes. Crews were still working to fully reopen the main state highways north out of Taranaki after heavy rain caused widespread flooding and slips last week. Neil Holdom said in some areas the infrastructure was pushed to its limits. "It's a real concern to us, that loss of connectivity, because there's a huge amount of trucking that comes in and out of Taranaki - so the impact on our economy, plus of course it's the middle of the school holidays, a lot of people travelling, a lot of uncertainty, and that's continuing now." State Highway 3 was down to a single lane in parts after slips at Mount Messenger and between Mōkau and Piopio. Geotechnical experts were expected on the other main route north out of Taranaki, SH43, closed by a slip between Whangamomona and Taumarunui. Holdom said that was putting a lot of pressure on the freight industry. "Massive impact for the trucking sector, someone who drove through there told me it looked like a battle zone. "That will take quite a lot of time to reinstate the highway to two lanes, which really shows how important it is to get this bypass through as soon as possible." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Landslide hits well-known Island Bay house
The aftermath of a slip in Island Bay, Wellington. Photo: Supplied A Wellington resident has broken her foot and her well-known house on the city's South Coast may now be out of use, after a major landslide brought down rocks and trees following torrential rain last week . Deborah East says she had to evacuate from the property on The Esplanade due to the risk of falling rocks, and Island Bay residents were taking boxes to the site to help her husband move out. She said it was a very large slip and it was now unsafe to be there. "The whole house is under a lot of pressure from the weight of rocks. The pressure from behind has caused a dwang to actually come out of the joist and poke through into the room, and the front door is very stiff to open." She said the slip occurred about 4.45pm on Friday. It also hit the gas water heater at the back of the house behind the kitchen and a water pipe, which caused water to dash down the steps and into the kitchen. When she returned on Saturday early afternoon, a wayward rock fell on her foot and broke it. The house is a well-known property in Island Bay, with a boat attached on the front of it. East, a former real estate agent, said the property was 100 years old. "It was a beautiful house, it was a quirky house, and we loved it. But nobody's died, that's the big thing - we and our dogs have got out okay." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
'Really devastating' - digging deep to clean up Motueka flood damage
Motueka locals are digging deep to put their lives back together and raise money for their neighbours, as the region reels in the wake of severe flooding. Civil Defence have called it the worst flood in nearly 150 years, and the Nelson Tasman region remains in a state of emergency. Blue Malosso, her husband and their two young kids had only moved to the Motueka Valley six months ago from Australia. Blue Malosso and her child in front of her home which was picked up and taken hundreds of metres by floodwaters. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi The pair had put their savings into a tiny home which was completely gutted and dragged 400 metres from its section by the Motueka River. "Walls, doors everything sort of came off the house. You're finding broken bunk beds in the middle of orchards, beds that your kids slept in two nights ago, fridges just everything." On the day of the flooding, just over a week ago, they watched the river surge in height, and after they had dropped their kids off to safety in town they tried to save as much as they could. "Getting in water waist deep, trying to push logs away from the house and then we came in to see what's behind us Saturday morning." She said it would almost feel easier if it was all swept away completely, rather than finding their belongings strewn around nearby fields and orchards. The kitchen of Blue Malasso's home. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi "You do just want to fall apart and sort of you know cry and not get back up, but when you've got two young kids you sort of don't have that luxury. "No matter how devastated you feel." She said sentimental things have been lost forever. "Things that meant a lot to me like clothes that you brought your new-born kids home from the hospital in, nowhere to be seen. "I mean that's really devastating." Malosso said people have been offering clothes and shoes for her kids, and others offering to collect the bits of their ruined home for scrap. Flood damaged items piled up outside a property in the Motueka Valley. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Nearby resident Tamara Jenkins owned a piece of land near where the Motueka river burst its banks. When RNZ approached her for comment, she was cutting down a fence taken out by fast-moving water during the initial rain event. "So, the river came up over the road and has taken out quite a chunk of our fence and the one going up into the paddock there. "It's never done that before." She said the fast-moving water was "really scary" and had changed the nearby landscape. "The river has taken off a massive chunk of the corner down there, which it has never been up that high." Kahu Stringer. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Twenty-four-year-old Kahu Stringer had lived in the Motueka Valley for his whole life. He was chopping up forestry slash that had come down in the bad weather to turn into firewood. Stringer said the storm was the worst he had ever seen in the area. "Some people can't fully clean their property unless they got a digger because you can't drive a vehicle on it. "It's all just river silt all over everyone's property." Land near the Motueka River remains laden with silt and debris. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi He said it was hard to see the damage the flooding had caused. Throughout the region, businesses and community groups have offered fundraisers, free meals and a room for the night. The Hotel Motueka's fundraiser on Saturday night was a full house. General manager Vince Sibbald said locals turned out and dug deep, adding to the thousands of dollars they've raised in the past week. In total the business raised nearly $7000 for residents affected by flooding. Hotel Motueka general manager Vince Sibbald. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Sibbald said they had also let people whose homes were damaged stay for free, with about 35 people sleeping there since the flooding began. "We've got some people here, they're just thankful they're warm, they're dry and their safe, that's our main focus." Men cutting up and clearing fallen trees in Motueka Valley. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
