Eastern Bay transportation operators are “ropable” about the surface of the Pekatahi Bridge.

The 100-year-old, single-lane bridge is on the main State Highway 2 route between the Port of Tauranga and the East Coast and Gisborne.

Warren Sherborne, who operates WozHiab, says the condition of the bridge has become “critical” despite frequent closures for works.

“They keep on shutting this bridge down, but make no improvement,” he said.

Mr Sherborne frequently transports portable buildings to Ōpōtiki and the East Coast.

“It’s like sending your little transportable home through an earthquake. It’s just ridiculous.

“They’re quite fragile,” he said of some of his loads. The bridge is rattling the absolute living crap out of them. We’re idling across the bridge in the lowest gear, taking up many phases [of the traffic lights] because we’re trying to look after our loads.

Having operated the business for five and a half years, he said he had never seen the bridge in a worse state than now.

“At the moment, this is just insane. Their latest bridge shuts [during April] have been pointless. The boards are indented now.

He expressed fears for the safety for loads.

“What if one of our loads was dislodged and came off after that bridge in transit and hurt someone?”

He also fears the effect heavy vehicles vibrating across bumps on the bridge will have on the foundations, likening it to a 40-tonne plate compactor going across the bridge.

He said he was reporting the issue to the road transport forum Ia Ara Aotearoa – Transporting New Zealand, of which he is a member.

Robert Monk from Robert Monk Transport, which carts as many as 30 loads a day of export kiwifruit from the Eastern Bay to the Tauranga port, said the bridge deck had gone “beyond a joke”.

“We’re getting shook to pieces on that bridge, even though the guys are going slow.

He pulled a stainless steel screw out of one of his truck’s tyres yesterday, which he said was just the most recent of many.

Recently, he had to pay $1200 for a call-out when one of his trucks had a flat tyre from one of the screws.

“I'm only a little company, but I pay in excess of $1.5 million a year in road users tax. It’s unacceptable.

“I’m just ropable. It’s costing us a lot of money, and a lot of other transport operators.

“It is a disgrace,” he said.  “The roads I travel on, when in the Philippines, are far superior to this, and the Philippines is a so-called third world country. What does that say about New Zealand?

New Zealand Transport Agency has said Pekatahi Bridge is not on its End-of-Life Bridge Register for replacement because the timber and steel sub-structure are in good condition.

Design work is underway for a full deck replacement. However, construction is subject to funding and the existing 2024-27 National Land Transport Plan budget is oversubscribed. Bridge replacements are prioritised according to the age and condition of the bridge and suitability for current traffic volumes Pekatahi Bridge does not rate as highly as other similar bridges across New Zealand.

NZTA plans to shut the bridge for further repairs during the upcoming school holidays beginning on June 27.

Dom Kalasih, chief executive of industry association Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand, told the Beacon the industry had real concerns about how works were being carried out on the bridge.

Every repair done to date lasts only a matter of days before it starts to fail again, and in only a matter of weeks it’s as bad as it was before, and we don’t think this time will be any different. Doing this several times a year looks like false economy, not to mention the additional freight costs related to the detour are in the order of $100,000 every day.

He said the Pekatahi Bridge was a very important link connecting Gisborne and Tauranga.

“On average it serves over 10,000 vehicles every day, of which typically nearly 1000 each day are trucks moving goods and freight. The communities and region are heavily reliant on this connection and for NZTA to think that just because there’s a 20-minute detour available this is no longer seen as a priority, it is incredibly difficult to fathom.

“NZTA’s new approach is not what our country needs, particularly when productivity improvements are so important to our economy’s recovery.”

BRIDGE SITUATION "DEEPLY FRUSTRATING"

East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick agrees the Pekatahi Bridge situation is “deeply frustrating for everyone”.

“I met with NZTA about this on Tuesday and learned there were three areas they were working on.”

Short term, these were regular maintenance each school holidays to maintain the surface. In the medium term, deck replacement, likely to cost $12 million to $14 million.

Longer term, assessing the future of the bridge alongside the necessity for a second Whakatāne crossing via the 2027 Regional and National Land Transport Plans.

"I impressed upon NZTA the need to evaluate whether spending $12-$14 million on resurfacing the bridge is really the most cost-effective option when it will still leave a one-lane bridge with complicated surface requirements as the main heavy traffic and regional traffic route through the district.

“Surely it is time to re-assess a number of components, heavy traffic requirements, the combined councils’ spatial and growth planning, which will see this route used more and more, the need to plan and prepare for a new roading project for Whakatāne before the traffic volumes reach a standstill, and the economic viability of the region and those of its neighbouring regions who use this route to transport export product to the Port of Tauranga and around the North Island.

“As an example, you only need to travel the Waioeka Gorge a few times as I do, to realise the amount of heavy traffic travelling north from Gisborne for stock, Leaderbrand vegetables, citrus, products and services to understand the necessity of this piece of infrastructure.”

“I am determined to keep pushing on these issues – I want people to keep sending me stories and photos. I forward them all to NZTA and it really is making a difference.”