SH2 Waioweka Gorge business case done since 2024, but upgrades need funding
A major slip on the Ōpōtiki side of the Waioweka Gorge pictured shortly following heavy rain in January 2026. Photo / NZTA
An NZ Transport Agency business case, completed in 2024 after three years of work disrupted by Cyclone Gabrielle, gave three options for resilience upgrades on State Highway 2, Waioweka Gorge.
None of these had progressed a year and a half later when about 40 slips last month forced the road to close for three weeks and counting.
The options were projected to cost between $70 million and $200m in 2024, and a question mark remains over funding availability and approval. James Pocock reports.
Resilience options for a key route between Gisborne and the Bay of Plenty could cost up to $200 million, but the preferred option would only reduce unplanned closures by half.
The 48km section of State Highway 2 through Waioweka Gorge has been shut since about 40 slips crashed down in heavy rain on January 16.
To date, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) has not set a reopening date.
Tentative hopes for a reopening soon were thwarted by a fresh slip at the Goldsmith site at the Ōpōtiki end of the gorge this week.
In 2021, NZTA was preparing a business case to identify ways it could improve the resilience and safety of SH2 through the Waioweka Gorge. That included public consultation for ideas.
The aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle forced a pause on the review work, which restarted in 2023 under Transport Rebuild East Coast (Trec).
Lisa Faulknor, NZTA regional manager of system design, said it recognised SH2 Waioweka Gorge as a key freight route and had assessed ways to improve the resilience and safety of the gorge.
“Through this assessment we have identified options for investment that address the highest-risk sites, alongside options that would improve the resilience of the entire corridor.”
The SH2 Waioweka Gorge Corridor Resilience Single Stage Business Case was completed in May 2024, but Faulknor said future investment in the corridor was subject to funding approval.
The Gisborne Herald requested a copy of the business case. NZTA responded that the request would need to be processed under the Official Information Act.
Faulknor said the business case presented three options which, as at 2024, cost from almost $70m to nearly $200m.
“The recommended option would focus on multiple higher-risk projects completed within this stretch of road. According to the Business Case, completing this option would result in a 53% reduction in closures – it would not fully eliminate the consequences of weather events or the subsequent closures," she said.
A history of unplanned closures
According to information available on the NZTA website, 20 unplanned closures occurred within the gorge over 10 years from 2012 to 2022.
A series of large slips closed the gorge for 27 days in March 2012.
An 8000cu m rockfall closed the road for seven days and restricted operations to one lane for a further 13 days in 2017. That was followed by eight months of disruption by smaller events.
A large slip in June 2018 closed the road for six days and 24-hour access did not resume until July that year.
Last year, the road was closed for 10 hours in June after slips.
In NZTA’s National Resilience Programme Business Case, published by Tonkin & Taylor in 2020, the Waioweka Gorge was the only road in the country rated 5VL – the highest level of “extreme risk”.
Asked if any resilience work had been done in the gorge between when the business case was completed and when slips closed the road last month, NZTA said it had undertaken “both operational and resilience-focused work in the gorge” to address known weather-related risks.
That work was completed shortly before January 16.
“Recovery and maintenance work was already underway at five sites within the gorge as part of Emergency Works Recovery following damage caused by the September weather event. Progress at these sites was constrained by access limitations, which is common in steep and geologically complex terrain such as the gorge,” NZTA said.
“Once two-lane access into the gorge can be safely restored, work at these sites will continue, and a further assessment will be carried out to identify any new at-risk locations as a result of the latest event.
“While this preparatory and recovery work helps reduce risk, extreme weather events of this scale can still cause significant damage, even in areas where mitigation and resilience measures are already in place.”
Business case can be ‘utilised without delay’
Faulknor confirmed the business case remained complete and did not need future work.
“So it can be utilised without delay, subject to funding availability and approval,” she said.
Approval of the business case is up to the NZTA board.
On the part of the Government, it appears that no answers regarding Crown funding availability for upgrades in Waioweka will come anytime soon.
At a media stand-up in Gisborne last week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not directly answer when asked if it was time to reprioritise resilience for roads in and out of Tairāwhiti following the closures of Waioweka Gorge and State Highway 35.
He said the Government already prioritised resilience, referencing its “huge” investment into the national land transport fund and work on State Highway 25 Coromandel and the Hawke’s Bay Expressway.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop, in response to a question from the Gisborne Herald at that same stand-up about whether upgrades were on the agenda for either Waioweka Gorge or State Highway 35, said, “We will cross that bridge when we get to it, literally.
“Let’s just get through the response and the recovery. We also need to let things settle a bit so that NZTA and the contractors and the team can actually get out there and assess the scale of the damage.
“Some of those things only become apparent as you get into the work.”