Unpredictable closures of State Highway 2 in the Waioweka Gorge are straining business and “killing our local economy”, a new Trust Tairāwhiti report says.
Trust Tairāwhiti found closures disrupted an estimated $190 million in annual tradeable gross domestic product (GDP) in its Waioweka Gorge Closure Impacts Report, released last week.
Following the release, a joint statement by a coalition of East Coast district and regional council leaders called for “urgent resilience investment” into SH2.
Access through the 48km section of Waioweka Gorge between Gisborne and Ōpōtiki has been particularly fraught since severe weather at the beginning of the year caused slips and flooding.
In a statement accompanying the report, Trust Tairāwhiti chief executive Doug Jones said unreliable access was creating a “major economic resilience risk”.
“Ongoing uncertainty [for] our businesses is killing our local economy,” Jones said.
The report estimates about $524,000 a day is disrupted in “road-dependent tradable GDP” during closures.
Disrupted GDP is defined in the report as “the value of economic activity exposed to delay, higher cost or reduced reliability”.
It estimated an additional $482,000 a day in travel costs across all vehicles during closures.
“The trust is calling on the Government to recognise the strategic importance of resilient access to the region and prioritise long-term investment in our state highways, particularly through the Waioweka Gorge,” Jones said.
Freighting, in particular, had taken a hit.
The report pointed to supply chain disruption as one of the most significant effects of the closures.
Thomas Hannon, a director and shareholder of freight business Eastlite Carriers, said it was a “shared sentiment” across the region that the closures were a “constant issue“.
Eastlite supplies food for supermarkets across Tairāwhiti, so is reliant on the roads being open.
“We’re basically one of the only lifelines for food up State Highway 35,” said Hannon, who is Wellington-based.
A gorge closure on a Friday could mean a delivery for Te Araroa may not arrive until Monday, he said.
“It’s just added stress, and ultimately the people suffering are ... those smaller communities that are even more isolated”
He described the effects of random closures as “a scramble”.
Closures meant he had to send up additional drivers, pay for hotel rooms for stranded drivers and increase fuel spending.
Hannon said Eastlite’s fuel costs had doubled since the start of the global fuel crisis.
“You’ve got to reschedule your whole day … it makes forward planning and getting the efficiency out of the fleet significantly harder overall."
It was not just operational stresses that had affected business.
“The road closure times that we’re advised by NZTA [New Zealand Transport Agency] don’t always necessarily match up to what’s actually happening.”
Linda Stewart, NZ Transport Agency/Waka Kotahi director of regional relationships, said the report provided “valuable insights”.
“Freight operators have been significantly affected by recent weather events and road closures, and we know those disruptions have real impacts on their businesses.”
NZTA did a business case assessing the gorge in May 2024.
“In the business case, we have identified options for investment that address the highest-risk resilience sites, alongside options that would improve the resilience of the entire corridor,” Stewart said.
“Following the January 2026 weather events, we are currently investigating changes to the scope and cost of the programme to achieve the minimum resilience level set out in the business case.”
East Coast (National) MP Dana Kirkpatrick said the report was “timely”.
The road was “critical for our region, and for the GDP of our region”, she said.
“We are perpetually in a recovery environment. That is the problem,” she told the Gisborne Herald.
“[National] have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Tairāwhiti roading infrastructure, but there’s a long way still to go.”
Ikaroa Tairāwhiti (Labour) MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel said road closures were “becoming an everyday part of life”.
“I won’t comment on NZTA, but what I can tell you is [Tairāwhiti’s roads are] clearly are not a priority of this Government. They have named their Roads of National Sgnificance and we are not named,” Tangaere-Manuel said.
Hannon is holding off on expanding his business further into the region.
“The higher level of uncertainty is not necessarily helping us want to invest more.”
Stewart said NZTA was working on restoring full access to the gorge.
“We need to make sure access is restored fast, but also safely.”
East Coast Council join for ‘urgent’ funding push
A joint statement by the Gisborne, Ōpōtiki, Bay of Plenty Regional and Hawke’s Bay councils said issues on State Highway 2 were “no longer simply a local transport matter“.
The councils sent a formal joint letter to Transport Minister Chris Bishop on April 10 about State Highway 2 through the East Coast corridor, and met with him last Wednesday.
They described the highway north through the Waioweka Gorge and south to Hawke’s Bay as a “nationally significant freight and lifeline route that is repeatedly being disrupted by slips, flooding, closures, geotechnical instability and ongoing recovery works”.
Included in the proposals was formal recognition of the road as “nationally significant economic and lifeline infrastructure” and prioritisation of resilience and reliability through future Government Policy Statements and National Land Transport Plans.
“For Tairāwhiti, State Highway 2 is not just another road. It is our lifeline for freight, health services, emergency response, tourism, business confidence and the everyday movement of our people,” Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said.