Totara rail bridge closure cuts Ross off from West Coast Wilderness Trail for another summer

A small West Coast community is facing another summer cut off from a popular 'Great Ride' due to a bridge closure.

The West Coast Wilderness Cycle Trail has been a boon for Ross, bringing thousands of cyclists to the region.

But last August, the historic Totara River Rail Bridge that connects the trail to Ross was closed due to safety concerns, cutting off the final 15 kilometre section.

Locals breathed a sigh of relief when the government fronted with $1.6 million towards a new bridge earlier this year.

But with an open date not expected until next year, the community has been preparing for another season without the usual flow of cyclists.

For the historic gold mining town of Ross, the trail has been a boon, marking the start or end of the Great Ride.

The Historic Empire Hotel co-owner Mark Brown said wheels have been welcome in Ross.

"People enjoyed coming to a little town and seeing what life used to be like. We're a bit laid-back here," he said.

"The day they shut the bridge was a sorry day for us. We lost 20 percent of our business with pre-bookings overnight."

They would have to keep plodding along like last year.

"It will be a bonus when they open that bridge again. It was a very good positive thing for town," he said.

"The Top 10 down the end of the road, they were busy. They'd send people up for meals, all the Airbnbs were busy, and then they'd look for the local watering hole, if you know what I mean, somewhere to eat and somewhere to go and have a yarn."

He wanted the original bridge to be preserved as a part of Ross' history.

"I know it's going to take a lot of money to keep it up to scratch to a certain degree but if it's left there for perpetuity for next generation and the generation after that, well, they can tell the story."

Ross Beach Top 10 Holiday Park owner-operator Sue Stile said its main market was international visitors but the cycle trail had been a real drawcard for New Zealanders.

Without the trail, she said it probably would have had to close its doors during the pandemic.

"It represents around $100,000 of income every year, which has been growing and growing year-on-year," she said.

"I'm really hoping when it reopens we have a bumper autumn/winter/spring because traditionally our tourists market is sort of December-January-February but the cycle trail extends that out from October through to Easter."

The bridge closure had left a sizeable hole in its turnover, so she was delighted a new bridge was on its way, Stile said.

However, she was not looking forward to another summer with the bridge out of action

"It's not fabulous. It is a real domestic draw so we're just missing out on that. With the economic slowdown everywhere, global and New Zealand, it's slow. The bookings are slow this year," Stile said.

Biddy Manera, who chaired the Ross Goldfields Information and Heritage Centre, said the trail had been an incredible way to showcase the town and its rich history.

She remembered when it was first mooted that the cycle trail was considering including the railway line to Ross

"The council said to us, 'Look, get all your ducks in a row. You're going to have this coming. It's going to be a coup'. And it has been," she said.

But last year's closure hit just as they readied for the summer swell of visitors.

"Some people had to be laid off so that's a loss to perhaps the school. People have got families so ... it's not just the closing of a bridge, it's a shutting down of a town in a way," she said.

She had hoped the original bridge would be restored for the trail, but now she was campaigning for it to be heritage listed.

"The history of Ross is its future," Manera said.

West Coast Wilderness Trail coordinator Jackie Gurden said roughly 15,000 to 16,000 people cycled at least part of the trail each year, contributing between $15-20 million in direct spend to the region.

She was stoked the government was using visitor levy funds for the new bridge.

"The West Coast doesn't have a lot of money. We absolutely struggle. Trails take an awful lot of effort to keep going and it falls back on our local councils and communities and volunteers to do all of that," she said.

"To actually have that funding without having to look at a massive million-plus fundraising effort, we're so grateful for that."

She believed it would make a difference to have the full trail open again.

"Definitely, there's a lot of people who actually want to do the full trail. It's almost like ticking a box. They don't want to just do the parts, they actually want to ride it completely from start to finish," she said.

Westland Mayor Helen Lash acknowledged it was a bitter pill when the council closed the bridge, but it had to happen.

"It scared me when I saw that there were bolts no longer there which should have been. There was corroded metalwork, there was rot in the piles and it would have been the weight of the bridge itself that would have brought the bridge down, nothing to do with people on it," Lash said.

But the impact on the community had been severe as the cycle trail was a lifeline to Ross, allowing businesses to be built around it, she said.

She was grateful for the government's funding, saying the council was faced with options ranging from $1.4 million to $2.5m, which would have been a significant burden on its small ratepayer base that already needed capital projects to go ahead.

She supported a push to have the original Totara River Rail Bridge heritage listed and wanted a plaque added to explain its history.

"We've got a lot of work to do, but, no, the intention's never been to remove the bridge. It's iconic and it has to stay there," she said.

She hoped the new bridge would be wheels up by mid-April - it would rely on weather conditions - with a contractor expected to be locked in soon.

"When we open it, it's going to be just a wonderful celebration for Ross because it gives them back their lives."

When cycle trails were built around the country, she said there was often no thought to their ongoing maintenance, which fell onto the ratepayers.

"What people don't understand with the cycle trail is that, yes, they subsidise it and they don't get that money back in their pocket, but what they do get ... is a vibrant town, they get a vibrant community, they get a vibrant region that's growing, that's got investment, that's giving them more surety on their jobs and their lives."

Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne said it would be tough for businesses as the new bridge would not be in place during the traditionally busiest time of the year for them.

They had already been severely impacted, he said.

Development West Coast had been advocating for a resolution so he was happy there was now a plan in place, Milne said.

The West Coast cycle trails, including the wilderness trail, were teaming up to do some joint marketing and other mahi, he said.

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