VIDEO: Big blocks, big milestone – First hanbars on site at Mangahauini Gorge

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said that the first of 1,300 large concrete blocks, known as ‘hanbars’ have arrived onsite for recovery work at Mangahauini Gorge on SH35.

Weighing between 5 and 10 tons each, these heavyweights will help form a new ‘roughened channel’ in the river that will help steady the riverbed and protect the highway from erosion.

The design was developed with iwi, hapū and others to protect the awa (river), surrounding whenua, and keep SH35 open.