Cyclone Gabrielle Hawkes Bay Response

Between 11 and 17 February 2023 New Zealand was devastated by cyclone Gabrielle, Hawkes Bay was badly affected with massive damage to infrastructure including roads, bridges, power and telecommunications infrastructure.

The loss of communications infrastructure had a huge impact affecting disaster recovery and creating issues for people trying to communicate with family and friends.

Disaster Recovery

Telcospec was on the scene as soon as Civil Defence allowed entry, the loss of the Waitangi rail bridge at Awatoto  had caused failure of major fibre cables almost isolating Napier from the south, this was our first challenge, the river was at this time was above the rail bridge and access to the cables at either side of the bridge compounded by mud and trees. Our crews battled on and installed temporary cabling across the road bridge rejoining networks the next day as the river abated. Napier at last had some connectivity to the outside world.

Alas to the north at Eskdale on SH5, partial opening of the road revealed massive damage to the road and rail corridors as well as 45 individual breaks in major fibre cables, with the effect of isolated communities and virtually no cellular connectivity. Telcospec rallied our staff and contractors and worked huge hours in very arduous conditions completing the temporary repairs in good time despite the many trials associated with the disaster. Simultaneously the loss of the single lane  Brookfield’s bridge required aerial cable to be strung across the Tutaekuri river to restore additional capacity between Napier and Hastings, heavy flooding around Pakowhai made this very difficult with crews walking along the stopbank for two kilometres to complete the task.

Permanent cable repairs

Telcospec undertook the design and management as well as the construction of new cable routes culminating in approx. 35km of new ducting and cable in various parts  of Hawkes Bay in the 2023 year, This work continues in 2024 with work programmed through to April 2025 to complete the restoration and enhancement of the various networks. This has been and continues to be a huge exercise co ordinating the various telco network providers and working with roading and rail authorities as they rebuild their networks.