Design work is underway to provide safer access to Mata Hall.

Community events for Whangārei to Port Marsden Highway have kicked off!

Friday 26 February 2021

Kia ora,

The first of our community events for Whangārei to Port Marsden Highway kicked off with a drop-in session at Mata Hall on Wednesday night.

About 150 people attended, and it was a great chance for us to meet local residents, have a chat about what’s currently planned and hear your feedback.

Our next event will be hosted tomorrow, Saturday 27 February, between 10am-1pm at The Hub Information Centre in the Whangārei Town Basin.

We will also have information available at the Northland Field Days in Dargaville next week, between 4 – 6 March.

If you’re unable to make either of these events, the information we are presenting is available on our website.

View the information presented at community events.

Local residents ask questions about the emerging preferred corridor at our Mata Hall drop-in session.

Community drop-in session at Mata Hall

During our first session this year, we had some productive conversations with landowners, project neighbours and local residents and gathered their feedback on the emerging preferred corridor.

In addition, 15 people completed the feedback form and 19 comments have so far been left on our interactive digital mapping tool, Social Pinpoint.

We are continuing to look at the feedback as the project develops; however, we have identified some emerging themes including:

• Landowners want certainty on property impacts and want to know the timeline (if their property is affected)

We acknowledge that potential property impacts and uncertainty can create high levels of stress within the community. We are working hard to confirm the preferred corridor and expect to communicate with landowners between mid-late 2021 with more certainty on individual property impacts.

• Locals want to know what’s happening with the Loop Road project, and how it will interact with the four-laning

The roundabout at Loop Road is designed to connect with the upgraded four-lane highway. What the design team is currently assessing is the crossing location over Otaika Stream to ensure that the bridge structure planned for Loop Road works together with what will be needed for four-laning.

We expect to have more detail on how the four-laning project will interact with Loop Road in the coming months.

• Specific questions regarding intersection design and state highway access

We’re aware locals have many questions about access to SH1 with an upgraded four-lane highway.

The addition of a centre median barrier will deliver significant safety improvements, but it will mean access to properties, businesses and local roads along the corridor will change.

Our designers are working on how multiple intersections and access points will interact with the state highway. In the case there are multiple options, our project team will host targeted engagement with residents in that area to help inform the best option.

We will continue to gather feedback over our next events at The Hub Information Centre this Saturday, and Northland Field Days next week.

If you can’t make either of these sessions but would still like to share your feedback, we encourage you to visit our interactive digital mapping tool Social Pinpoint.

A snapshot of our interactive digital mapping tool, Social Pinpoint

Share your thoughts with us

If you’re unable to make any of our community events, we still want to hear from you!

We welcome your feedback and ideas on the emerging preferred corridor and invite you to leave your comments on our interactive mapping tool, Social Pinpoint.

Leave your feedback by dragging a marker and dropping it on the map or join the discussion by responding to other people’s comments.

Visit our Social Pinpoint page.

What happens next?

The next steps for this project are to carry out further technical assessments and ground investigations to help us confirm the preferred corridor.

Between mid-late 2021, we plan to contact landowners within the preferred corridor to confirm whether their property is directly affected and to discuss individual property impacts in greater detail.

We are planning to lodge the Notice(s) of Requirement and resource consent applications in early-2022, followed by procurement for construction and detailed design.

Construction is programmed to begin in late-2023/early-2024.

More information

For more information on the SH1 Whangārei to Port Marsden Highway project, contact us at W2PMH@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/w2pmh