Re-building State Highway 1 north of Kaikōura has created hundreds of temporary jobs for locals and meant boom times for local contractors. Peter and Catherine Ford are among them.
When drivers hit the re-opened State Highway 1 north of Kaikōura this summer, it’ll be Peter Ford’s gravel chips crunching beneath their wheels.
One of the co-owners of local earthmovers Ford Bros, Mr Ford sent two diggers to the southern stretch of highway a few days after the earthquake - and hasn’t really stopped working since.
“It was months before you saw the house in daylight, eh?” his wife Catherine Ford says.
“I can remember saying, ‘The hours are huge.’ He said, ‘It’ll be a short burst’ - well, it’s not a short burst.”
Mr Ford never envisaged at the beginning what a marathon effort it would be to re-build State Highway 1 north of the town where the couple both grew up.
“We’ve had slips in the past … but this is something you’d never believe was possible. I think the local contractors thought they were going to fix it all themselves but no - too big for the local boys.”
Ford Bros became one of the many companies supplying, essentially, different sizes of crushed rock - taken from the mouth of the Hapuka River, just south of where all the construction action begins, and turned into ballast to lay the new railway lines on, or gravel for the road base.
Hundreds of trucks and heavy machinery travel up and down the closed portion of State Highway 1 each day Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Earlier this year Mrs Ford got in on the action too, working for Northern Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTIR) - the especially-established agency tasked with overseeing the entire re-build.
One of hundreds of locals employed by NCTIR, her new job sees her out and about making sure people still living along the highway get the heads-up when they’re about to get trucks rumbling past for eight hours day.
The work is hard and loud and dirty, and on a hot day the workers sweat beneath their hi-vis and hard hats. At stop-go signs, the line of trucks and utes stretches hundreds of metres back, while high above them diggers perch at precarious angles on slips, scrapping stepped banks to catch falling rubble. Among the many vehicles ambling up and down the road is a truck with the sole task of spraying water to keep dust levels down.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people think, ‘Great - progress,’ and they can see that it’s gotta be done,” Mrs Ford says.
“There’s always the odd issue - we’ve got dust and we’ve got noise - but most people are really good about it.”
The road means “everything” to locals, she says.
“It’s knowing that you can’t get out, is hard for people.”
“I’ll never take a road for granted ever again,” Mr Ford says. “The buildings and the houses are nothing compared to the damage to the roads.”
The road is on track to re-open on December 15, though anyone expecting a fully-sealed double-laned highway to begin with will be disappointed, with work to continue through next year.
“They’re doing it the right way - they’re not skimping,” Mr Ford says.
“When it’s finished that’ll be it - the road will be primo.”
The mood in town has picked up since the opening date was confirmed, Mrs Ford says.
“Everyone’s tired, and now that they’ve got a date, the whole morale has changed - you know, it is going to happen.”
The Fords are tired, too.
“Every day’s just rolling into being exactly the same.”
They’re yet to fix the minor damage their house back in town suffered during the quake.
“We’ll get there,” Mrs Ford says. “We’re hardly there long enough to see the cracks in the walls and the holes in the floor.”
Eventually though, the cracks will be plastered over, the holes filled in, and the dark ribbon of State Highway 1 will wind its way again around the uplifted coastline.
“I was thinking the other day, after this is all finished it’s going to be a weird feeling,” Mr Ford says.
“It’s going to be still and you’ll hear the sound of silence again. It’ll be like, was I dreaming that or did it really happen?”
Peter and Catherine Ford both grew up in Kaikōura and have no plans to leave, despite a hard year. 'It's home,' Mrs Ford says. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Main image: Peter and Catherine Ford at Ford Bros river quarry at Hapuka, north of Kaikōura (RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King)