Later this year, motorists travelling over Mt Messenger on State Highway 3 in Taranaki could get a fleeting glimpse of 20-tonne digger seemingly flying through mid-air.
300614. Photo supplied. Mt Messenger and Awakino Gorge Corridor, in Taranaki. Photo: Supplied
Waka Kotahi is about to build a 1.1 kilometre cableway at the summit to transport workers, material and heavy equipment into the centre of its Mt Messenger Bypass site.
Owner interface manager Chris Nally said the $8 million cableway - which was being imported from Austria - would enable access to critical components of the project.
"One being the tunnel and one being a large fill, right, about 600,000 cubic metres of fill has to be positioned on the north side of where the tunnel's going.
"This cableway gives us the opportunity to access into that which at the moment is a deep valley without having to cut big tracks through the environment."
The cableway also allows Waka Kotahi to circumvent an ongoing legal battle over access to the 235-metre tunnel under the summit from the project's northern end.
And avoids having to wait for a 125 metre-long bridge to be built over the Mimi wetland in the south.
Nally said a cableway had never been used in this way in New Zealand before.
"Not for a roading project. We have got examples obviously with gondola in the skifields and other big construction projects with the Clyde dam back in the day, but for roading it's pretty unique."
Waka Kotahi owner interface manager Chris Nally. Photo: Supplied
Motorists would only get a brief glimpse of loads on the cableway, he said.
"I'm sure drivers will be pretty inquisitive and they'll probably want to slow down and have a look.
"But to be honest they'll struggle to see that equipment once it's left the top of the rest area, where it will be very visible, and we'll make sure there are ways there to make sure motorists are not distracted."
The Taranaki Mayoral Forum and project partners Ngati Tama have welcomed news work was getting underway.
But Marie Gibbs of bypass opponents, Poutama Kaitiaki Charitable Trust, believed the cableway was a breach of Waka Kotahi's consents.
"NZTA are planning some quite significant earthworks and vegetation clearance from the summit of Mt Messenger and that was just not contemplated in the resource consent processes that have been going on for the last five years. We see it as a breach of the consent."
Gibbs said the cableway sat outside the project footprint.
"The project documents are very specific on where the project's footprint is and the ancillary works area around it and there was no project footprint on the summit of Mt Messenger above the tunnel.
"That was meant to be left as an ecological corridor not clear felled and levelled."
Waka Kotahi's Chris Nally said it was allowed.
"The cableway gives us the access and that's within what we're allowed to do for the project. It's within our consents. We can access the project to build the road.
"The point there is the cable is an investment. We want returns from that and that is in environmental gains. We're touching the land as lightly as possible."
Nally said construction of the cableway would begin in August and it would be operational in October.
The bypass was due to be completed in mid-2026 inside its current budget of $280 million.