lose for about 10 days over the school holidays, concerns have been raised about whether Pekatahi Bridge will cope with the extra traffic.

The closure is required for work on a Whakatāne District Council project to raise the road to prevent flooding.

Rūātoki North farmer John Tebbutt, who is 82 and travels from Whakatāne to work on his farm about five times a week, describes the road closure as “one of the biggest acts of stupidity I’ve seen in a long time”.

He questions the necessity of the work, considering how infrequently the road floods.

“When it does, it is usually shallow and easy to drive through,” he said.

He thinks closing the road completely rather than keeping a single lane open with stop/go is going to put more pressure on Pekatahi Bridge than it can handle.

There would need to be people on the bridge controlling traffic, because motorists often ignored the traffic lights on the one-lane bridge, he said.

“It will be mayhem. They will just keep going when it turns red.”

He said, with work due to begin on a new two-lane bridge at Pekatahi in 2029, it would be better to delay closing the road until it was completed.

Council transportation manager, Ann-Elise Reynolds said the council appreciated the temporary closure would inconvenience some road users.

“The works are part of a programme to improve the resilience of a section of road that is vulnerable to flooding during heavy rain events.

“Council records show Tāneatua Road has experienced four unplanned closures in the past 18 months due to heavy rain, and on average has been closed around once a year over the past 20 years. There have also been occasions where flooding has affected the road, but it has remained passable.”

While the duration of historic closures was not comprehensively recorded, they had typically remained closed for between 12 and 48 hours while river levels receded, she said.

For most of the project, traffic will be managed using a single lane and stop/go controls. However, the additional culvert upgrade work required installation of culverts more than five metres deep, making a full road closure necessary for safety reasons.

“The council has worked to minimise disruption by scheduling the closure during the school holiday period where possible and working with the contractor to keep the closure as short as practicable.”

Reynolds said the approved detour route had been reviewed by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.

“As part of the traffic management requirements, the contractor will monitor the detour route throughout the closure period and any issues identified will be addressed as required.”