SH58 Safety Improvement Project Update

18 July 2025

What’s happening with the bus stops?

Getting kids on and off buses is always a top safety matter, and even more so when large trees need to be felled close by.

Recently, Downer met with representatives from NZ Coach Services, Mana Newlands Coach Services, Tranzurban Wellington, and Transdev, at the Moonshine bus stop. 

It was important for people from these companies that operate school buses for the area to walk the ground and discuss matters with the construction management team.

It was a productive meeting, and the representatives agreed with the temporary arrangements made.  Here are the main points:

Moonshine bus stop relocation

• The Moonshine bus stop moved to the opposite side of Moonshine Road at the start of Term 3.
   
• That means the bus will stop on the right-hand side of the intersection (west – Porirua side).
   
• The old bus shelter is not being moved, so there won’t be a bus shelter at the new temporary stop during this phase of construction.
   
• Another option available, is for parents/caregivers to use the Flightys Road bus stop both in the morning and afternoon.
   
• The bus stop will remain in this location during construction of the roundabout.

Trees being felled at the Moonshine Road bus stop area.

Flightys Rd bus stop

The west-bound stop (heading towards Porirua) will remain the same until Downer starts to build the new permanent design. We’ll keep an eye on how this is working and if a better location is needed, then that will be decided at the time.

The east-bound stop will remain the current temporary stop at the bottom of Flightys Rd.

During the work to remove the hillock, it won’t be safe for children to wait for pick-up or be dropped off on the roadside. Buses will need to pull into Flightys Road to collect and drop off the children and meet parents/caregivers.

Downer has contacted schools to pass on this info to parents/caregivers via their newsletters and email lists.

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about the bus stops.

Moonshine bus shelter – history panels

At the request of the Diane Strugnell, Secretary of the Pāuatahanui Residents Association, the Downer team recently carefully removed the history panels located in the Moonshine bus shelter.   The two panels are now safely stored until a new home is found.

Diane is now working with Porirua City Council to see what the next steps are to be in finding these panels the next chapter in their life.

Belinda Mackenzie-Dodds from Downer provides some human perspective to show just how massive the hillock is before it’s taken away. Here she stands on the other side from the highway and shows where the new road layout will eventually encompass.

Taking you behind the scenes

There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes when building significant pieces of new highway and large roundabouts.  Over the construction period, we’re going to bring you in ‘behind the scenes’ as much as possible and show road users and communities all the fascinating technical, social and practical aspects that go into building such a project.

Much of work for the team at the moment is getting out and meeting directly affected property owners. Coordinating our work with these property owners takes time and there are often fresh matters to sort out.

Before any workers arrive on site, our project managers meet up with landowners to discuss in detail how the project works will affect their driveways and other essential services, e.g. water and power connections. 

Any matters that need attention, will be dealt with by the team. For example, our senior project team discusses access with landowners and/or residents before any clearing of land prior to equipment being bought in, such as a drill rig or diggers.

Residents can be really helpful with their detailed local knowledge.  One recent outcome of a meeting was when the team reached out to an owner as a courtesy to let them know the start of work and to discuss the location of a pump shed.   The residents advised that there are two wells that we should be aware of and they showed us their location.  That important conversation may have saved a nasty accident for someone!

There are several businesses in the area, and our team will ensure we’re proactively talking with both business owners and their staff, who will be affected by our works at different times.  

Being open and discussing how we can best work with their needs is a priority.  We need to get the building work done and we understand such work is always going to be disruptive to peoples’ regular routines.  We want to minimise any disturbance as much as possible.

More than 5500 cubic metres of earth in this hillock will be taken down in one of the first big tasks of the build.

Here’s a brief overview of what we’re working on over the next few weeks

The hillock at Flightys Road will disappear within the first three months from July.  

The mound is made up of greywacke rock, which is suitable for general fill when compacted.  It’s estimated that about 5500 cubic metres of material is in the mound.  The material will be tested for quality to determine where it can best be used.

Some of the material will get used at the Flightys roundabout, and some will get trucked down to Moonshine Road to be used for parts of that roundabout build.

Dismantling such a hill near a busy highway is no mean feat.

The mound will be brought down by working in from the sides and pulling down the upper parts away from the highway as it progresses.

A temporary road diversion is to be constructed around the back of the hillock to shift Flightys Rd traffic away from the new roundabout area. This will allow the final fill over the existing intersection to take place and the roundabout to be formed in its place.

Barriers with debris screens will be put along the roadway to protect passing traffic.  These barriers are planned to be installed on a night shift on Sunday 27 July as part of our necessary traffic management.

The Downer team would like people to be more aware that workers are often very close to the road edge.  Sometimes the only thing between a road worker and a vehicle is a set of plastic cones. 

We urge people to stick to the different speed limits in place – even though it may feel disruptive, we can all work and live together during this important building phase.

Please treat workers with respect – they’re humans too, like you!

View from the Flightys Road hillock looking over toward the Hutt Valley direction.

Soil testing around Moonshine for traffic loading

As part of the preparation for building the Moonshine roundabout, there’s lots of testing that needs to be done.

Engineers need to check that the subgrade layer under the new roadway feeding into the roundabout is going to have enough weight bearing capacity for all those cars, trucks and other vehicles that will use the highway.

One of those tests is performed with a Scala Penetrometer.  It’s a quick and simple test which provides a lot of information about the soil structure underneath the topsoil surface.

As part of the contract quality assurance requirements, every time new areas of topsoil are removed as part of the construction process, the Scala Penetrometer tests are done and the results confirm that the ground meets our design assumptions.

Even in a small area, soil types and quality can be quite variable.  That’s why so many tests are needed and experts have to consider the worst-case scenario. 

Recently 18 Scala tests were done the around Moonshine site.

Scala Penetrometer is a simple test that unlocks a lot of information.

Want to connect with the project team?

If you have any questions about the project work, email:   sh58safety@nzta.govt.nz;and keep a watch on the SH58 Project webpage: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/sh58-safety-improvements.

Just a note, if you ever need to report an emergency, incident or have an immediate concern about any highway in New Zealand, call the freephone 0800 4 HIGHWAYS or 0800 44 44 49.

Calls are handled by our national call centre and is staffed 24/7 – every day of the year.

Update from Wellington Transport Alliance

Slip remediation works near the Haywards power substation – next 2 weeks

Wellington Transport Alliance reports that from Monday 22 July, work crews will be carrying out minor slip remediation works on SH58 Haywards Hill.

The slip is located near the Haywards power substation and is at the same location as a significant slip that occurred in August 2022.

The works will be during the day for approximately two weeks, weather permitting. There will be a single lane closure during the hours of 7am – 5pm, Monday 22 July to Thursday 31 July.

In recent months, there’s been some minor debris falling onto the remediated slip site. So, crews will be clearing debris and installing channels at the base of the slip site to help keep this area well drained and to catch future falling material.

The lane closure in place shouldn’t cause delays to traffic, and all traffic can flow as normal.