KiwiRail is marking 10 years since the Kaikōura earthquake severed the Main North Line and triggered one of New Zealand’s largest rail rebuilding projects.
The November 2016 magnitude 7.8 earthquake buried railway tracks beneath slips and landslides at about 100 locations along the South Island’s eastern transport corridor.
Before the earthquake, more than one million tonnes of freight moved across the line each year. Its closure forced freight bound for Canterbury and destinations further south onto longer inland road routes.
KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy says the recovery remains a source of pride for the organisation and its partners.
“This was an unprecedented challenge for New Zealand’s transport network,” Reidy says.
“Our people and partner agencies worked in extraordinarily difficult conditions to reconnect communities, restore a vital national freight link and rebuild a railway some initially feared might never reopen.”
The rebuild replaced 19,000 sleepers, destressed 92km of track, realigned about 11km and installed a further 11km.
KiwiRail and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi formed the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery alliance with contractors and engineering consultants to restore the damaged road and rail connections.
At the height of the work, about 1000 people were based in the Kaikōura area. Temporary villages housed 360 workers, while accommodation was also secured across Kaikōura, Cheviot and Blenheim.
Close to one million cubic metres of rock and other material fell onto the coastal corridor, cutting State Highway 1 and isolating Kaikōura and surrounding rural communities.
NZTA director of regional relationships South Island James Caygill says the effect on residents and businesses was substantial.
“With so much on the line, we saw people rising to the occasion and working long hours to reconnect those communities, using methods ranging from the ‘tried and true’ through to breakthrough innovations to solve tough problems,” Caygill says.
“The job was never only about recovering from the impacts of the earthquake. It was about building a stronger, more resilient transport network that those communities and New Zealand could rely on.”
While the railway was closed, KiwiRail established the NZ Connect coastal service between Auckland and Christchurch with Ports of Auckland, shipping company ANL/CMA CGM and Lyttelton Port.
It also expanded its Spring Creek freight hub near Blenheim to support freight forwarders.
The rebuilt corridor incorporated slope stabilisation, debris barriers, seawalls, track realignments, monitoring systems and new operating controls intended to reduce risks from future slips and extreme weather.
“It was the biggest rail rebuild we had ever undertaken,” KiwiRail general manager project delivery Daniel Headifen says.
The first freight train travelled over the reopened Main North Line on September 15, 2017, 10 months after the earthquake.
Daytime freight services resumed 13 months later in October 2018, while the Coastal Pacific passenger service returned in December that year.
“The recovery changed how KiwiRail prepares for and responds to major events,” Headifen says.
“We improved our emergency bridging capability, weather forecasting and response processes, and the way we manage trains during severe conditions.
“There is resilience in the assets we rebuilt, but Kaikōura also made us a more resilient organisation.”
