There is hope on the horizon for SH23 with Waka Kotahi working hard to create a temporary road around the now infamous road slip. Although most of the information about the project has come from divvy resident GM Hickton whose land is being used for the new diversion the Waka Kotahi comms team has been able to tell us they’re hoping to make it a two lane road. While they won’t give any estimates on the time it will take they are reassuring the community that “every effort is being made to create access as a matter of urgency”.
We do know that much of yesterday was spent clearing pine trees from the work site and that Waka Kotahi expects that the earthworks “will be carried out over the next few days”. How much work is required after that isn’t clear but we imagine GM Hickton will continue to scoop the Waka Kotahi comms team when it comes to keeping the community informed on facebook.
In the meantime the slip is still very unstable with engineers citing water saturated soil sliding over a harder siltstone bedrock as being the cause. Why this is the first slip since the road was put in in 1943 is not entirely clear however.
Raglan’s bus service has been severely affected by the detour with the after work bus and Sunday bus cancelled at the moment. The bus journey is an extra hour longer each way and drivers are starting work at 4:50am which means their hours are used up by mid afternoon. This coupled with the current bus driver shortage means Waikato Regional Council has been left “making some difficult choices” about the bus schedule.
John Lawson’s suggestion of buses meeting either slide of the slip and passengers walking between them has been turned down by council and Busit for health and safety reasons. “While a creative suggestion, letting people off at one side of the road closure to walk to a bus on the other is not feasible. Turning our buses around would be extremely difficult, there is the health and safety issue of our passengers walking in close vicinity to an active work site, and it would not be possible for those with mobility issues to navigate the area.” Said Mark Tamura, Director of Regional Transport Connections.
While staff are working hard our question about spending money to put on more buses has gone unanswered. Nonetheless, we hope that today’s meeting between the Waikato Regional Council and Busit comes up with something solid for the community. “We know there are many people who rely on our Raglan bus service and we have worked hard with our operator, Go Bus, to find a solution in a very difficult situation.We are closely monitoring these changes, as well as liaising with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency to understand how long our services – and the community of Raglan – might continue to be impacted by the closure of SH23. “The diversion has added at least one hour each way and an extra 134km. As you’ll know, some sections of the diversion are narrow and winding, and include a couple of one-lane bridges. Safety is our number one priority. “This means we’ve had to make some difficult choices about what services we can run while the diversion is in place. “There are a number of factors which have resulted in the cancellation of the 5pm bus services, one of them is driver hours which is difficult to resolve in light of the well-known driver shortage. “We are closely monitoring capacity on our services and looking for ways to deliver a service to the Raglan community – and all those on the route – while SH23 remains closed.” Said Mark Tamura.
In the meantime SH23 and Old Mountain Rd are blocked to everyone but residents and there is concern about the extra load on Waitetuna Valley Rd which is being used as an unofficial detour.
The Raglan Community Board has its own meeting today at 1:30pm in the town hall supper room. They will be getting an in-person report about the wastewater situation while hopefully getting feedback about the Wi Neera walkway scope of work and the Waikowhai walkway in Lorenzen Bay. We also note that there is still plenty of money https://raglanradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/RCR_SH23.png