During the 7.8 magnitude Kaikoura earthquake on 14 November 2016: 21 faults ruptured, generating the strongest ground shaking ever recorded in New Zealand. The South Island moved; hundreds of landslides came down; land rose and slumped along the northeastern coastline; transport networks (road, rail and harbour) were devastated and coastal and rural communities isolated overnight. The North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery Alliance (NCTIR) was set up in early 2017 to keep traffic moving on the few remaining alternate routes and to restore the original transport networks. NCTIR is a partnership arrangement between the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and KiwiRail with Downer, Fulton Hogan, HEB Construction and Higgins. This was the first time NZTA and KiwiRail had collaborated in an alliance with civil construction firms at such scale. At its peak, 1700 workers were involved on the NCTIR project on any given day.
The internationally recognised outcomes were the Main North Line railway was open to freight after just 10 months, the Kaikoura Harbour reopened 11 months after the seabed rose and State Highway 1 (SH1) opened to the traveling public after only one year, one month, and one day. While these were achieved by Christmas 2017 we are still working to rebuild the road and rail networks to make them resilient for the future. CITATION: Bell, S H, 2019. Well-being and mental health in Kaikoura rebuild, in Proceedings PACRIM 2019, pp 511 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).