Our Road to Recovery: SH25 closure, Tapu-Coroglen, and more

Published on 24 April 2023

As we head into week nine in our road to recovery since Cyclone Gabrielle hit the Coromandel, here’s how we’re working on our rebuild.

Urgent repairs for Kereta hill, SH25

State Highway 25 will be closed at Kereta Hill over seven weeknights between Wednesday 26 April and Friday 5 May, while the contractors for New Zealand Transport Agency/Waka Kotahi do urgent work to repair and reseal the road at that location. Limited daytime sealing works will also be required.

As this section of the State Highway is very narrow, the road will have to be closed for periods overnight to keep everyone safe.

The closure hours are between 8pm - 11pm and 12 midnight through to 5am. The road will be open for one hour between 11pm and midnight to allow people through.

Emergency access will always be available.

SH25 Kereta Hill closure times

Green = road is open, no closure planned
Red = closure scheduled

State highways are managed by Waka Kotahi.

Maintenance around the loop 

In addition to the Kereta Hill road repairs, Waka Kotahi is continuing to monitor approximately 50 slip sites along SH25. Here's an update on this week's work.

You can find more information on this in Waka Kotahi’s update here.

SH25A Taparahi - Kōpū to Hikuai

Next month, Waka Kotahi is expected to announce the preferred solution for addressing the large slip on SH25A to restore the road.

Waka Kotahi is assessing three options at once so they can quickly progress to the design phase once they have made a decision. The options are to build a new road bypassing the slip, to build a bridge over the slip, or to build a retaining wall and then rebuild the collapsed road.

Tapu-Coroglen Rd

Our Council’s roading team is working towards a temporary alternative route for the Tapu-Coroglen Road (which is a local Council road). We estimate it will be ready for use in June.

In the meantime, we’re working on a permanent repair to the road that we estimate will be complete in December.

You can read more about this on our roading page here.

Tourists spend down across our district

The latest spending data just out shows visitor spending has reduced by 28 per cent in January to March compared to the same period last year.

Tairua, Coromandel Town, and Whitianga have seen the greatest percentage decrease across the Hauraki Coromandel area.

Our Council, alongside our district’s tourism authority Destination Hauraki Coromandel, are working hard to encourage tourism to return to our district. The Lucky Loop campaign was launched this past weekend to entice visitors to drive the Coromandel Coast with many locally sourced prizes up for grabs. Find out more here.

There will be more campaigns to encourage visitors here over the coming weeks and months.

More funding available soon for struggling businesses

Central government announced last week it will provide an additional $25 million of business recovery support in the regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.

This follows earlier support of $50 million to assist the business community with their immediate cashflow needs.

It has not yet been announced how this additional funding will be allocated to our Council to administer on behalf of the Waikato region.

We received 528 applications seeking $10.8 million in support for an available $3.8 million in central government funding tasked to our Council to allocate for Waikato region. More than 90 per cent of applicants were from our District.

An Independent Advisory Panel of business representatives from the Waikato region reviewed all applications. The 132 unsuccessful applicants were notified by email and informed of other potential support options.

Payments to 396 successful recipients began from 11 April and the entire fund has now been distributed. The average grant per recipient is $9,596 (dividing $3.8 million by 396).

Recipients and grant amounts are available on our website here.

“The fact that we had applications totalling more than double the available funding indicates the level of need in the region. It was good to hear last week that the government was making available another $25 million in business support for cyclone-affected regions. We haven’t yet heard how much of that will be allocated to Thames-Coromandel District Council to distribute on behalf of Waikato region.

“The visitor spending figures from January to March are down by nearly 30 per cent from the same period last year – when businesses were finally hoping to see a good summer after several years of taking a hit from COVID. This is extremely challenging for us economically, when you think how dependent we are on the visitor industry. Tourism supports one in five workers here, which is why I’ve been making it clear to central government that the need for business support in the Coromandel has not finished, and will continue for as long as SH25A is out of operation.”

Updates from DOC

Some DOC sites in our district remain closed due to damage. If you plan on visiting public conservation land, make sure you first check the DOC website.