Weather causes highway chaos

Heavy rain over the weekend closed State Highways on both sides of Nelson and Tasman, cutting the region off for a time over the long weekend.

State Highway 6, at Pelorus Bridge and south of Murchison, was the first main highway to close on Saturday afternoon due to flooding and a slip respectively.

Bad weather continued to affect roads for the rest of the day and by 5.20pm the list of closures had grown to include a section of SH60 near Tākaka, between Pupu Valley Rd and Waitapu Wharf.

Shortly before 6.30pm Saturday, NZTA made the call that SH6 would remain closed between Murchison and O’Sullivan’s Bridge overnight, on Sunday morning aerial photographs of the slip at Dellow’s Bluff explained why.

By 8pm, SH60 in Tākaka had reopened. An hour later SH6 at Pelorus followed suit.

However, just two hours later, more slips on the other side of town closed SH6 between Kohatu and Murchison. This meant that there was no longer road access from Nelson to the West Coast or Christchurch via the inland route.

The situation continued to worsen overnight with the Kohatu road remaining closed due to more slips on Sunday morning.

By this time contractors were already working to clear the slips and get the roads cleared which meant the road could reopen between Kawatiri and Murchison restoring access to Murchison, via SH63.

SH6 in the Buller Gorge had been closed because of flooding which later caused a slip on the highway at the West Coast end of the Buller Gorge.

A helicopter began to remove loose debris and overhanging rocks from the top of the slip face at Dellow’s Bluff. By 5.15pm, Murchison to the SH65 Junction had reopened, restoring the inland route to Christchurch.

On Monday, the Buller Gorge remained closed all day, meaning those trying to catch the last of the season’s whitebait on the coast would have to drive to Reefton, and Springs Junction before heading back to Nelson.