Published August 15, 2020 3:01PM
by Merv Goodley
Merv Goodley
Re: Repair needed . . . . not a rebuild, July 25 article.
To say they could have the Gisborne to Wairoa rail link up and running by 2021 is totally dumb! Publishing that without any evidence is a joke.
Maybe the Gisborne City Vintage Railway group could tell readers how much has had to be spent on minor works for track and bridge maintenance in the past few years. I feel sorry for the GCVR group, but I always said the line should have been opened up to the top of Beach Loop with a turntable.
The BERL report with its low-ball figure for repairing the line was a crazy spend. KiwiRail should have done that exercise and if it then decided not to go ahead, gifted the line to a trust.
I am saying Gillian Ward does not know the actual situation when she says that from December 2011 to March 2012 there were three fully-loaded trains per week, 16x40ft containers. My observation was that most times, a lot of them rattled both ways (ie they were empty).
As far as I’m concerned, Gillian, it’s the blind leading the blind. Christmas 2021 is only 18 months away.
Gisborne Rail Action Group even had an article in the Wairoa Star recently seeking support — bearing in mind that to get the Wairoa to Napier line open again cost the Government $6.2 million, and the line has only been used three times. (What’s happening there?)
The July 25 article mentioned the detailed BERL report. Its 500-plus pages, involving experienced engineers (the same ones who advise KiwiRail), say the rail formation and structures are sound. For $600,000 did the BERL report go into past damage of the line? Again, I question whether these engineers actually checked the structures properly, but we are told they are sound.
Back in 1955 the line was closed for 10 days by a large slip. Then in August 1957, after torrential rain (the likes of which we haven’t seen for a while), one of the largest slips recorded in New Zealand took place. Some 270 metres of rail track and the road to Mahia below the track was obliterated, with thousands of tonnes of soil and rock slipping out into the sea. It took 19 bulldozers and some 70 men working day and night for a month to clear the slip, lay the new line and open the road. The slip was floodlit for night work. The cost for the 1957 slip was estimated at some £30,000 or in 2020 dollars, over $1.5 million.
Here’s a funny story; it is said one of the contractors sent a bill of 25 hours for a day’s work and was pulled up about it. His response was he worked through his lunch hour!
Since the July 25 article, responses from six armchair supporters of GRAG have appeared on these pages. On July 27 Ken Ovenden said $200m-plus to fix the line — he is more on track than the BERL report.
So Gillian, could you please tell us the cost to get across the Tikiwhata Stream blowout? Just so everyone knows, that’s 50m across plus 50m deep and dropping. Is it a viaduct? How long will it take to build in years? They won’t get that done by Christmas 2021.
Please note that the 1957 slip was about 500 metres along from that July 25 front-page photo, at Blacks Beach.
I ask, do we want to see $200m spent on the Gisborne to Wairoa link so it will, with a bit of luck, last 30 years? Or do we want $40m spent on the Gisborne to Napier road to fast-track all the freight going into 2024?
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