Porirua and Whitaker’s Chocolate are throwing a Choctober Fest: cafés throughout Porirua for the whole month of October will be using Whitaker’s chocolate to create their own unique beverages and baked goods! The Pukerua Bay café are participating, Greedy & Co. at 98 Rawhiti Road (Tue-Fri 8am-1pm, Sat 9am-1pm). Their entries will be:
Raspberry gateau hot chocolate: A velvety, creamy hot chocolate with a raspberry twist, topped with whipped cream.
White Chocolate Cheesecake Brownie: a rich, decadent chocolate brownie topped with a creamy white chocolate cheesecake and berry swirl.
Last weekend we submitted our comments and the changes we want to the proposed variation to the Porirua District Plan for land around Pukerua Bay.
The variation would allow new housing developments on the eastern side of the village, off Muri Road and the Mt Welcome farm (the former deer farm off SH59). Read information on Porirua City Council website.
We suggested a number of changes and additions to strengthen environmental protection, explicitly acknowledge the impact of climate change, the need to identify funding for infrastructure before work starts, and changes to the urban design to improve accessibility and neighbourhood connections. The documents are:
We are again having direct access to the north, and work is continuing—so keep to the lowered speed limit. The latest from Waka Kotahi follows.
Good morning,
State Highway 59 between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki is now OPEN.
There are still active work sites along this corridor, so please take care and keep to the restricted speed limit for the safety of road users and crews.
It’s that time where we all vote for who represents us on our local government bodies (Porirua City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council), and who serves as mayor of Porirua city. The election runs from 16 September to 8 October; more about voting is available at the Electoral Commission’s Vote NZ site.
Date: 7 pm, Wednesday 14 September (ical) Venue: Pukerua Bay School and Community Hall (map)
Come and find out what your candidates are about, and grill them with your pointed questions. We’re asking candidates for information relevant to Pukerua Bay, and putting together responses as they come to hand on our election page, “2022 Local Government Election”. More information on the Porirua City Council candidates is available on the Porirua City Council “Candidates for Election” page.
SH 59 will not be re-open on Monday 12 September. There is more work to be undertaken. Waka Kotahi has provided the below up-date
Crews are working 24 hours daily to get State Highway 59 between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki reopened next week.
As of this morning, Friday, 9 September, 19,000 cubic metres, approximately 2500 truckloads of earth has been removed from the site as part of slip remediation, and slope benching works. Another 6,000 cubic metres, almost 800 truckloads, is to be removed this weekend.
Weather permitting, earthworks will be completed early next week.
The final part of the operation will be clearing the work site, installing edge barriers and reinstating the road before reopening safely to the public, which will take an additional 2-3 days.
On Monday, 12 September Waka Kotahi will provide an update on the expected timeframe for reopening the road.
You should have received the September 2022 edition of the Kōrero community newsletter in your mailbox by now. It is also available as a PDF download on our Kōrero page.
After the success of this event at the last Local Body Elections we are doing it again. Candidates for PCC Mayor, Parirua Maori Ward, Pauatahanui General Ward and GWRC Porirua-Tawa Ward have been invited to introduce themselves to the community then face up to questions (feel free to send a question to secretary@pukeruabay.org.nz but do indicate if it’s aimed at Mayoral, Regional or PCC candidates).
The meeting will be in the School and Community Hall starting at 7 pm and finishing at 9 pm with the opportunity to mingle and talk more to the candidates after the Q & A session.
Waka Kotahi has provided a further update. It is anticipated State Highway 59 will re-open Monday 12 September if work goes smoothly.
SLIP CONTROL, PUKERUA BAY HILLSIDE SAFETY PROJECT: UPDATE 2 September 2022
Since Friday 26 August,excavators have cleared the unstable overhang above the slip face and relocated the spoil using multiple trucks. Excavators are working at the top and bottom of the hillside to remove vegetation and soil to create a slope that will be stable long-term, rather than do a quick temporary clean-up. Benches (steps) are being formed along the hill to capture debris, like the benches seen on the Ngauranga Gorge hillside. Approximately 15,000 cubic metres will need be removed – that’s over 2300 truckloads of earth – with 7000 cubic metres already having been removed as at Thursday afternoon 1st September.
Multiple crews are working 10 hours a day, seven days a week to complete the safety project in as short a time as possible to minimise the impact on people’s journeys. To minimise customer impact from our maintenance activity for the next year, the closure between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki has been used by many crews to undertake scheduled maintenance work, such as road and barrier repairs, high risk tree removal and pruning along with drain clearing.
Work has also started on making the Pukerua Bay lookout at the top of the hill safe, where two slips have undermined footpaths.
When can the road reopen to the public?
It is hoped that the road could reopen on Monday 12 September 2022, if all goes smoothly. The safety project team continue to assess the site daily to seek potential opportunities to allow limited public access past the site. Meanwhile the road remains closed to all users.
Occasional planned and carefully coordinated escorts for any train replacement buses is occurring when needed, to maintain this vital link for people. Limited access has also been maintained between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki for cyclists and pedestrians who are able to use Pukerua Beach to access the path at the bottom of the hill. However, they need to exercise caution for the uneven surface and high tides.
Thanks for your patience and understanding while this essential work is carried out.
The next update on the re-opening of SH59 between Paekākāriki and Pukerua Bay will be provided on Friday 2 September. From Wellington NZTA:
The hillside continues to be assessed daily to ensure safe access to cyclists, vehicles and pedestrians can be restored. Residents can continue to access Pukerua Bay from the south and Paekākāriki resident access is from the north. All other road users to continue using SH1 as an alternate route.
We know these works are inconvenient and thank the community for their patience!
SH59 Paekākāriki to Pukerua Bay remains an active worksite and will continue to remain CLOSED for safety reasons. Our hard working crew continues to work on stabilising the hillside at Pukerua Bay. Next update on the re-opening of SH59 will be provided on Friday 2 September. pic.twitter.com/sqtGxgRfvx
— Waka Kotahi NZTA Wellington (@WakaKotahiWgtn) August 31, 2022
