SH1 Tīrau to Waiouru accelerated maintenance project update

SH1 Tokoroa - Atiamuri opens next week, Putaruru - Tokoroa to close

15 November 2024

What’s happening on SH1 between Tīrau and Taupō

Christmas is fast approaching and our project to fit 4 years worth of central North Island maintenance into 16 months is in full swing. It’s going to be busy over the next 5 weeks as we work to get sections of State Highway 1 complete in time for the Christmas break.

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happening on SH1 and what’s coming up in the remainder of 2024. All of these are covered in more detail lower down, including detour routes. 

Current closures:
• East Taupō Arterial section of SH1 is currently closed until Friday 6 December.
• Tokoroa to Upper Ātiamuri is closed, expected to reopen under temporary traffic management next week (aiming for 23 November - weather dependent).

Upcoming closures:
• As soon as we have finished working in the Tokoroa to Upper Ātiamuri section, we will be closing SH1 Putāruru to Tokoroa for about 4 weeks.
• On Sunday 24 November SH1 from just south of Tīrau to just north of Putāruru will be closed at nights (7pm to 6am) for 2 weeks (Sunday to Thursday night works only).

Open but under temporary traffic management (which may include stop/go):
• The northern section of SH1 between Upper Ātiamuri and Wairakei.

Progress on East Taupō Arterial

Work is now well underway on the closed section of the East Taupō Arterial (known as the ETA) between Broadlands Road and the SH1/SH5 roundabout at Wairakei.

All the preparation work has been completed to allow resurfacing work to begin, including the area where the road is being widened.

In some places we’re doing spot road repairs, known as mill and fill, and we’re working through fixing these patches before tackling the sections of full rebuild.

In the areas where the road has been rebuilt, we will need to come back after a few weeks to lay the final asphalt surface. We will advise as soon as we can on the timing of this and whether it can be done as a night closure. 

East Taupō Arterial detours and events

Thank you to all those affected by the detours in the Taupō area, you seem to be coping quite well with them!  Fridays are often where there is more congestion in Taupō so please allow more time for your journeys.  

There is no notable congestion on official detours. There has been congestion in the afternoon peak through Taupo township (Spa Road to Tongariro Street roundabout) this week each afternoon between 3.30pm-5.45pm. The peak delay was recorded on Thursday 14 November - 12 minutes and 55 seconds. We are keeping in close contact with Taupō District Council to monitor their local network.

There are major sporting events in Taupō over the next month or so. There will be thousands of cyclists out and about on the state highway network. These cyclists will be competing in the annual Lake Taupō Cycle Challenge on 30 November and others are opting for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships on 14 and 15 December.

You can read more about these events and how they will affect the state highway network here.

Putāruru's Plaza Theatre was a great venue for our drop-in session

Out and about in Putāruru

Some of the project team were out meeting with the community at 2 drop-in sessions in Putāruru yesterday.  

It was great to hear your views and be able to answer some questions about what we’re doing and why, and how it will work for residents within the sites.  

Thanks Putāruru for coming out and talking to us. We did hold a session from 4.30-6.30, but it seems Putaruru folk preferred daytime session  between 1-3pm. 

We are going to host a virtual drop-in session on Zoom for anyone to ask questions about the project. This will be recorded and shared on our website afterwards. We’re still looking at dates and times for this session, more details will be shared once they are confirmed.

Remember if you have a question or just want to provide feedback you can always email us at SH1Waikato@nzta.govt.nz. 

We loved having a visit from the friendliest neighbourhood cat!

Improved productivity

Completely closing sections of SH1 has enabled 3 sprayers to be used at once to apply the bitumen emulsion at a temperature of 85 degrees onto the foam bitumen basecourse underneath (photo above).

This is followed by the chip being applied (photo below). A final asphalt surface is then applied in a few months, once the pavement and chip seal surface has had time to “bed in”.

 Road closures increase productivity, and this has meant 3 days’ worth of sealing could be completed in 1 day in the section between Tokoroa and Upper Ātiamuri.

Bedding in the chip seal

We’ve mentioned before that once we’ve re-opened a section of road that has been rebuilt, we need trafficate it to allow the chip to “bed in”.

Here’s the quick explanation of what that means.

The road needs this time with traffic using it to allow it to settle and the stone chip to fully bed in, so that the final surface will be smooth and durable. This process of bedding in using traffic is known as trafficating.

While this is happening, traffic is under a temporary speed limit as its important to be gentle with the new road. The faster vehicles go, the greater the force they exert and the higher the risk of the chip being lost. Wet weather makes adhering to the temporary speed limit even more important, as the water can get forced into the new road by speeding traffic.

Once the chip is adequately bedded in - the length of time will vary - the excess chip will be swept off, the lines marked and all temporary traffic management removed.

SH1 between Putāruru and Tokoroa – closures begin next week

In just over a week (subject to weather letting us finish the Tokoroa to upper Ātiamuri section) we’ll be starting work on the section of SH1 between Putāruru and Tokoroa.

The current rain in the area is making this date uncertain.  It is hoped that we can begin Thursday next week, from 5am. SH1 will be closed from SH1/Princes Street, Putāruru to SH1/SH32 Tokoroa intersection for about 4 weeks (weather permitting).

We’ll definitely be off the road by Friday 20 December as there is a moratorium on work happening during the Christmas holiday period from lunchtime on 20 December until midnight on Sunday 5 January 2025.

For this closure, all north and south bound SH1 vehicles will be detoured via Princes Street, Arapuni Street, Arapuni Road, Waotu Road, Old Taupō Road, SH32 - Tokoroa and vice versa.

This will add approximately 15 mins and 11km to journey times (standard journey via SH1 Putāruru to Tokoroa is approximately 18 mins and 23km). There will be a temporary speed limit of 70km/h along the entirety of the detour route.

Heavy vehicles are asked to take SH5 and SH30 East (Rotorua section).

Trucks and through traffic travelling between 7pm and 6am may want to consider taking SH5 via Rotorua to avoid the night closure between Tīrau and Putāruru (see the story below).

The "hard closure" (the worksite) is approximately 13km long, from Vospers Road to Rollett Road.

There will be a “soft closure” in Putāruru, between SH1/Princes Street intersection and Vospers Road, Lichfield. There is also a soft closure at the southern end, up to Rollett Road. 

These soft closures still allow access, but are in place in order to send those on longer journeys down appropriate detours.

Southbound traffic will not be able to travel beyond Vospers/Ngatira roads. Northbound traffic will only be able to travel as far north as SH1 Rollett Road.

Within the hard closure, there will strict requirements before anyone can go into that area as there will be a multitude of machines and people working on the road at all times of the day and night.

Pilot vehicles will be used and there may be delays going through the work site. This means the road is very restricted as to who can use it.

Please be patient and follow the instructions of the traffic manager on site. We are working to keep you safe. Additional signage will be placed at the detour points advising that businesses beyond this point are still open.

We will need to come back sometime next year to do additional work in the northern section between Domain and Vospers roads. We’ll let you know when the schedule for this is confirmed.

Tokoroa to upper Ātiamuri almost done

There’s about a week to go for the closure between Tokoroa and upper Ātiamuri which began on 7 October.

We’re expecting to reopen this section under temporary traffic management next week (aiming for Friday 22 November). Weather over the coming days will determine the reopening date.  Today wasn't conducive to road works, and that has put the schedule in jeopardy. We are working on a number of possibilities and as soon as we have more information, this will be shared via another e-newsletter and social media.   

As the pictures show, it is amazing how much work can be done when the road is closed and multiple crews and trucks can work across all the lanes at once. At one stage this week we had 50 trucks working in this section at the same time! But weather plays a big role, and we can't control that! 

Tīrau to Putāruru night closures

From Sunday 24 November we’ll be back to complete the final surface on the stretch of SH1 that we first closed back in September – from just south of Tīrau to just north of Putāruru.

This night-only closure is to lay the final asphalt surface to complete the 5.75km of road rebuild.

This asphalting will be done from Sunday 24 November until Thursday 5 December, working Sunday to Thursday nights only. The road will be closed from 7pm to 6am on those dates.  

The detour will be the same as it was in September, via SH28 and SH5.

Through traffic from the north heading to Taupō may want to consider continuing on SH5 via Rotorua to avoid the closure between Putāruru and Tokoroa mentioned above.

Traffic controllers are doing their best to do a good job

Be kind to our traffic controllers

We had an unfortunate incident earlier this week where a driver with a firearm in his car ignored the Stop/Go traffic controller and sped through the site.

Previouisly a traffic controller was also confronted by someone threatening to get their gun. This kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable and incredibly disappointing. 

Traffic Controllers like Akuata Rapaki (pictured above) who worked on the Tīrau to to Putāruru closure play a key role – they keep you safe by ensuring you take the appropriate detour or wait while oncoming traffic clears past a worksite.

They are there to help, and like everyone else they want to go home to their friends and families at the end of the day.

We also want to point out that the team has also experienced acts of kindness from our project neighbours, and we know there are many who appreciate the work that is happening. Thank you to those thoughtful people. 

Please feel free to approach the team with a wave – some people are even bringing the appreciative crew baked goods, coffees and chocolate – but not verbal abuse or physical weapons.

Desert Road closure date confirmed for January 2025

We can now confirm that SH1 between Tūrangi and Waiouru will close from Monday 6 January until late February 2025.

More information will be available as soon as the detours are finalised. It is likely that motorists would be detoured on (from north to south) – SH41, SH47, SH4, SH49 and back to SH1.

This is one of the most challenging sections of this huge maintenance programme that we’re delivering. 

The alpine environment and potential for a cold snap means we need to do this closure in the peak summer months as we need a minimum ground temperature of 13 degrees to carry out pavement works.

While the road is closed, we’ll be rebuilding or repairing almost 16 lane kilometres and replacing the deck on the Mangatoetoenui Bridge which is around 23km south of Rangipo.

We’ll let you know more about this work in future updates. If you have any questions about this closure, please email us. 

Stakeholder Advisory Group

We’re will be holding our next stakeholder advisory group session on Wednesday 27 November from 10am to 11am.

These meetings are a chance for our partners, stakeholders and community representatives to have input into our work programme, or troubleshoot any particular concerns that we need to be aware of.

If you’d like to be a part of this or future sessions, please email us. 

More information

This work forms part of the government’s $2.07 billion investment into road and drainage renewal and maintenance across 2024-27 via the State Highway Pothole Prevention fund.

Please pass this on to others who may be using SH1 in the next few months and encourage them to sign up to this newsletter by using the subscribe button below.

For more information or any concerns on the SH1 Tīrau to Waiouru maintenance, please email us.

Please visit our website nzta.govt.nz/t2w