In June 2025, a storm triggered significant landslides across SH60 Takaka Hill in the Tasman region, severely impacting a critical transport lifeline route and threatening to isolate communities. The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) needed to act quickly to reinstate the only route in and out of Golden Bay. They engaged our team to help deliver a rapid disaster recovery and emergency road reinstatement response.
We worked in close partnership with NZTA and Fulton Hogan to implement a pace over perfection recovery model, prioritising rapid restoration through risk-informed governance, empowered local decision-making, and concurrent design and construction. This approach enabled a complex infrastructure recovery to be delivered in five months rather than years. Reuse of existing designs allowed efficient, fit-for-purpose solutions suited to the challenging geological and hydrological conditions.
Our role extended beyond design, integrating engineering expertise with infrastructure risk management, historical understanding of the road, digital field tools, and life cycle thinking to support fast, confident decision-making in a dynamic situation. Concurrent delivery, standardised solutions, and real-time information sharing helped remove bottlenecks while maintaining safety, the integrity of the transport network, and future resilience considerations.
Beyond reopening the road, the project set a benchmark for critical infrastructure recovery, demonstrating how time, risk, and value can be balanced to deliver better outcomes for communities and the transport network.
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