Just after midnight on the 14 November 2016, almost everyone in New Zealand felt a shudder. One that carried on for a minute or more and left many dropping for cover. A 7.8 earthquake had struck near the town of Kaikoura, on the east coast of South Island and it quickly became apparent that, while damage and casualties were not on a global disaster scale, the logistics landscape was going to change for a long time, perhaps forever.
Famous for stunning scenery and whale watch encounters, Kaikoura is on State Highway 1 and the only north / south rail route in that part of the country. The transport corridor is vulnerable as both road and rail hug a very narrow strip between the steep slopes of the Kaikoura hills and the sea.
The earthquake struck with such force that not only were road and rail bed crumbled and broken, the transport route was buried under thousands of tons of rubble as slips tumbled from mountain to sea in dozens places. Between Kaikoura and Clarence alone there were nine slips, four of which were massive (approximately 300 meters high). Indeed one freight train was stranded for six weeks.
The total volume of material which has come down in these slips is estimated at more than 700,000 m3, equivalent to around 300 olympic sized swimming pools, according to the New Zealand Transport Agency. It will probably take at least a year to have the route open again.
“Restoring full access on State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura is a massive job, and it’s going to take some time to complete,” says NZTA’s Kaikoura Earthquake Recovery Manager Steve Mutton.
The town was cut off in both directions and it took five weeks to clear a way through from the south. “Crews have already cleared more than 50 slips on the Inland road (route 70), and on State Highway 1 more than 10,000 man hours have contributed to the removal of over 50,000 cubic metres of rock in around 7,000 truckloads,” says Mutton. Work has already started on the more difficult task of restoring road north.
There were affects further afield, but less severe. In Wellington, Centreport was closed and there was damage to the wharf servicing the Interislander ferry, that links North Island and South Island across the Cook Strait. It only took days to repair this important link that takes the majority of freight traffic which, for the most part, goes north to south, while also moving passenger vehicles and rail freight (Interislander still has a rail ferry that does three return trips a day carrying a freight train’s worth of wagons at a time).
The big issue comes when freight arrives in Picton, gateway to the South Island. No longer able to head along the normal coastal road, trucks have to divert inland along a slower route, adding three hours to the normal five hour drive to Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city and destination for much of the SH1 traffic.
The main issues are that truck drivers run the risk of busting their hours over the longer journey, and the Road Transport Forum is reported as stating that freight costs have jumped 18% along affected routes.
While the season, through summer, is useful for the clear up is does not help freight traffic, which has to jostle with the extra cars and camper vans of the tourist season along the only viable route.
Numbers may be small by international standards, but big enough to matter for a country of four and a half million people with limited transport links. Before the quake around 1,500 vehicles per day were using the twisty, single lane highway SH7. That number has risen four fold.
As a safety measure, speed limits have been reduced in sections of the road. The good news for freight operators is that the alternative route can take the high capacity (50 tonne) weight limit trucks that usually ply SH1.
KiwiRail, however, has no alternative rail track for the normally profitable service to Christchurch from North Island.
Since the November Kaikoura Earthquake, the national rail operator has put in place a number of alternative transport options for customers. These include a new intermodal freight hub in Blenheim, north of the affected route. Freight can be taken by rail from Picton and then transferred to trucks for the journey on SH7 into Christchurch.
KiwiRail has also instigated a new freight shipping option, NZ Connect, which takes customers’ freight from Auckland in the North Island via ship to Lyttelton, the port that serves Christchurch. “We have also boosted our rail services into ports from inland freight hubs in Auckland and Tauranga,” says spokesperson Sarah Stuart.
“KiwiRail is working at pace on the restoration of the line. There are 21 tunnels and 80 bridges along the route with varying amounts of damage plus twisted and broken track to fix. One of the main obstacles is the ongoing seismic activity in the area which requires repeated safety assessments for workers.” Nevertheless it has taken two months to restore rail service to the Dominion Salt works at Lake Grassmere, at the north end of the troubled route.
Meanwhile, work continues on restoring the main road link. Transport Minister Simon Bridges has announced the establishment of the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery alliance, made up of the NZ Transport Agency, KiwiRail, plus four construction companies. They have also slated between NZ$1.4 and $2 billion to cover the clear up and restore or even improve SH1.
The work of the NCTIR alliance will mainly consist of rail and road network reinstatement between Oaro and the Clarence River, and the management and operation of the alternative State Highway Corridor between Picton and Christchurch via Murchison and Lewis Pass.
The work is hazardous, involving activity on slips that may move during an aftershock, and other occasional obstacles. “A large, 50 tonne plus, rock protrusion hanging over one of the larger slips needed to be blasted out of the way, as contractors were unable to dislodge it using other methods,” says Pete Connors, NZ Transport Agency Regional Performance Manager.
Nevertheless, crews had already cleared more than 50 slips on the Inland road (route 70) in five weeks, and on State Highway 1 more than 10,000 man hours have contributed to the removal of over 50,000 cubic metres of rock in around 7,000 truckloads.
By the time the main route south is restored, perhaps a year away, the extra logistics costs will be significant. Some alternative delivery methods that do not rely on such a vulnerable route may be in place for good.
Article first appeared in Logistics Business Magazine, Feb 2017
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