Ten years on: remembering the Kaikōura earthquake and the rebuild that followed
Ten years ago, the Kaikōura earthquake severely damaged one of New Zealand’s most important transport corridors, cutting road and rail links and effectively isolating Kaikōura.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck just after midnight on 14 November 2016, triggering massive landslides that covered the rail line and road. State Highway 1 and the Main North Line between Picton and Christchurch were severed.
For KiwiRail, it was the most extensive rail damage New Zealand had experienced from a single event.
What followed was an extraordinary recovery effort.
With the Main North Line closed, KiwiRail had to quickly find new ways to keep customers’ freight moving.
Customers were brought together early to explain the scale of the damage and the likely recovery ahead, while alternative freight options were put in place. These included NZ Connect, providing coastal shipping capacity between Auckland and Christchurch, and expanding the Spring Creek freight hub near Blenheim.
Meanwhile, in the first days after the quake engineers and local train drivers travelled the damaged corridor on foot and by helicopter to understand the scale of the destruction. Aftershocks and the risk of further slips meant the teams on the ground always carried emergency supplies, satellite phones and personal locator beacons.
KiwiRail and the New Zealand Transport Agency joined forces through the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery alliance, NCTIR, bringing together contractors and engineering specialists from all around New Zealand to restore the road and rail links. At the height of the recovery, around 1,000 people were based in and around Kaikōura.
It was complex work, carried out in tough conditions and often far from home. But there were also moments the people involved have never forgotten.
One was the arrival of the first work train into Kaikōura. Recovery workers came out onto the embankment and cheered as it passed.
Less than a year after the earthquake, on 15 September 2017, the first freight train travelled the reopened Main North Line. Hundreds of locals and recovery workers gathered at Kaikōura station, where the train was welcomed with applause and tears before being blessed by Ngāti Kuri and continuing south.
Daytime freight services returned in October 2018, followed by the Coastal Pacific passenger service that December.
The recovery was not without setbacks. Three major tropical cyclones hit during the rebuild, causing further slips and damaging some areas where work had already been completed.
The team knew they had to build back stronger. This work included slope stabilisation, debris barriers, seawalls, realignments and new monitoring and operational systems to better protect the corridor from future slips and extreme weather.
The lessons from Kaikōura have also changed the way KiwiRail prepares and responds for major events, improving emergency bridging capability, weather forecasting and response processes and the way trains are managed during severe conditions.
A decade on, the anniversary is a chance to remember the enormous impact of the earthquake and celebrate all those who worked so hard to reconnect the railway and the communities it serves.