Safety works: SH2 between Waihī and Tauranga is undergoing significant improvements

State Highway 2 Corridor Investment

SH2 is a busy highway with a poor safety record and the pressures of this have been felt for some time. This section of state highway between Waihī and Tauranga is a commuter and freight route as well as an important tourist link for the northern Bay of Plenty and Coromandel Peninsula. 

Significant investment is being made to address the safety, access and congestion issues  on this corridor. 

We are now over halfway through the $101m safety improvement programme between Waihī and Ōmokoroa and despite some unexpected challenges, this is ahead of time and on budget to be finished in 2024. Subject to property negotiations, we are due to start construction of the $655m Takitimu North Link - Stage One between Tauranga and Te Puna. More detail on what the team has been up to over the last few months is below.

As we enter the main construction season (between September and April), you will see activity along SH2 start to ramp up. We realise this will come with some apprehension for regular drivers and communities along this corridor. Waka Kotahi is working hard with contractors and suppliers to deliver better outcomes around your journeys. While we can’t always avoid delays, we can provide better quality information and advanced notice of delays occurring. Thank you to those people who take the time to give feedback to the team at Waka Kotahi, we are listening and always looking to improve our approach.

Our summer maintenance programme is a huge focus along SH2 before Christmas. The programme is being finalised and details will be made available in advance of the work being carried out. We are currently planning night works and working on how to reduce the impact on people travelling on resealed sites in the days following this work. 

Due to COVID-19 challenges worldwide, Waka Kotahi is experiencing supply issues with some materials. These include timber piles, steel and electrical products. There is a five-month delivery delay on some items. This has the potential to cause delays to the projects as well as affect budgets, with products costing more as a result. We continue to work with our contractors and suppliers to monitor and manage the impact of this.

On track: Works are ramping up for the spring/summer season

SH2 Waihī to Ōmokoroa Safety Project - What’s happening?

Section 4: Athenree Road to Tanners Point Road

Four retaining walls have been constructed here, with another four to be constructed ahead of the main works taking place.

Some of these have been challenging to build due to difficult underlying ground conditions, but the team is working to overcome these challenges. 

Retaining wall construction will require single lane closure at times to allow our work crews to carry out this work safely and efficiently. 

Road widening works will continue between Athenree Road and Tanners Point Road over the next few months. This includes earthworks, drainage, service relocations, kerb and channels and pavement.

Section 5: Tanners Point Road to Kauri Point Road

Power and watermain relocations are almost complete in this section with final switch overs in October. Following this, you will not see much work in this section until approximately March 2022.

Section 8: Sharp Road to Sargent Drive

Work to move the power and watermain to a new shared utilities trench further from the road is almost complete. Main works are well underway in this area. 

In addition to the project, our maintenance teams will carry out pavement rehabilitation works in the Thompsons Track area later in the year (November or December). This will be followed by rehabilitation works in the Sargent Road area in February next year.

Safer journeys: Flexible median barriers are lifesavers

Flexible median barriers update

Earlier this year, Waka Kotahi sought your feedback on median barriers on SH2 between Tetley Road/Rea Road and Pahoia Road/Esdaile Road.

We received:

531 individual pieces of feedback. This included 449 comments online via Social PinPoint and 82 emails.

The main concerns expressed included extra travel time with median barrier and roundabouts, access for emergency services, narrow and ageing bridges and crashes occurring at intersections.

The project is strongly supported by Mana Whenua, with no strong preference in terms of roundabout location;

Western Bay of Plenty District Council is supportive, placing the scope in their Long-Term Plan; 

NZ Police is supportive of the safety improvements and has strongly encouraged the installation of median barrier, with pragmatic decisions advised on the start and end location of barrier to avoid “drivers gunning it down the wrong side of a barrier to avoid having to travel to the next roundabout”;

Road Transport Forum members raised initial concerns regarding over-dimension vehicles and median barrier, however they were complimentary of the design team’s effort to consider the movement of freight and over-dimension vehicles.

Next steps

We have funding to design two roundabouts, one at the SH2/Rea Road/Tetley Road intersection and another at SH2/Morton Road. We do not have a timeframe for the median barrier and six roundabouts as funding is yet to be confirmed for design and construction. We will provide updates when this information is available.

Further information is available on our SH2 Waihī to Tauranga corridor website: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/projects/sh2-waihi-to-omokoroa/sh2-waihi-to-omokoroa-proposed-flexible-median-barrier-and-roundabout-options.pdf

Groundwork: Geotech investigations underway at Minden Gully

Geotech programme near completion for Takitimu North Link Stage One

Our programme of site investigations is near completion, after a short pause during the Alert Level 3 and 4 restrictions. Our team of ecologists, archaeologists, geotech engineers and surveyors have been carrying out site investigations between Tauranga and Te Puna for several months, as we continue planning for the new expressway. We will continue work on sites at Cambridge Road, Minden Road, West Minden Gully, and Fifteenth Ave.

These investigations involve robust testing of the soil and rock at individual sites within the future construction area, and look at:

• ground conditions, including soil and rock types
• groundwater depths
• strength of soil and rock
• gathering soil and rock samples to assess.

We do this work so we can understand what the ground is like to help us design and plan how to build the road. The Waka Kotahi project team is working with BBO, Fulton Hogan and HEB Joint Venture to develop designs for the interchanges at Minden Road, a new bridge crossing the Wairoa Awa (River), overbridges at Cambridge Road and Wairoa Road, and the new connection from Fifteenth Avenue to the Takitimu Drive Toll Road. Investigations are due to be completed in October 2021. Subject to property negotiations, construction is due to begin later this year.

We are committed to treading lightly and looking after the environment and its inhabitants, a blessing was led by Kaiarahi Leon Aorangi (Ngāti Pango) prior to laying traps to identify native lizards

Work underway to locate native lizards

Takitimu North Link Stage One

There are around 11 different species of native lizards present within mainland habitats throughout the Bay of Plenty region. From the information already gathered in our ecological surveys, eight species have been identified as potentially present within the Takitimu North Link project alignment. Wildlands’ Ecologist-Herpetologist is assisting with developing and implementing our Lizard management processes, and as part of planning for the project, we have placed traps within the potential lizard habitat sites in readiness to catch and relocate lizards and skinks prior to removing the vegetation. A Wildlife Permit is required prior to the lizards being salvaged and relocated and this process is underway with the Department of Conservation.

There are two types of traps being used to discover which lizards are present: Onduline and pitfall traps. Onduline traps are made of two pieces of corrugated Onduline roofing material sandwiched together with sticks from the surrounding area. The Onduline holds warmth, which cold-blooded lizards always appreciate. Pitfall Traps are small buckets with holes in the bottom to drain moisture are dug into the ground and filled with grasses and sticks from the area. At the start of the trapping week all pitfall traps will be activated by removing sticks and vegetation and replacing it with damp leaf litter, a small square of moist sponge and banana bait.

Route protection of Takitimu North Link Stage Two

Route protection is the first of many stages in a project and identifies and protects land for a future public work. Route protection is intended to protect the land from any development that could potentially make construction of the project more difficult in the future. 

For Stage Two of Takitimu North Link, this means we will seek to protect this route for future construction by applying for land designation and some resource consents. The current designation will need to be widened so that it is sufficient to accommodate the four-lane expressway, a separate parallel walking and cycling path and all of the land required for the associated landscaping, stormwater treatment and environmental mitigation.

We plan to lodge the alteration to designation and resource consent applications with Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council early 2022.

Diversity: The presence of the banded kōkopu helps us to understand the ecology of the project area

Takitimu North Link - Stage Two: What our site investigations have found

Our team carried out some site investigations earlier this year between Te Puna and Ōmokoroa, these investigations will continue for several months and include ecological, geotechnical, stormwater and archaeological assessments.

The area between Loop Road and Gill Lane was the focus in the early part of this year where there is about 670m of existing streams in the upper Oturu Creek catchment.

Fish surveys of the streams found three native species, the longfin eel, shortfin eel and the banded kōkopu. These are some of the better swimming and climbing native fish species, so their presence may suggest that there is a partial barrier to fish passage downstream, which is impacting on fish diversity. Any new culverts or structures will need to provide for fish passage.

To date surveys have shown the terrestrial vegetation has been rated low in value. Of the wetlands surveyed to date, two have been assessed as having medium ecological values. While no native lizards have been found in our surveys so far, copper skink and moko skink have been found in the local area. No native long-tailed bats have been found in the vegetation monitoring surveys.

Next Steps

We are continuing further ecological, noise, archaeological, contamination, engineering, landscape and transport investigations along the Stage Two project area to inform our design and support assessments for the designation and resource consents. Further geotechnical testing is currently taking place and we will be talking to potentially affected landowners about the environmental investigations and the updated design required to protect the route. This will be followed with wider public engagement later in the year.

More information

For more information on the SH2 Waihī to Tauranga Corridor projects, contact us at bopprojects@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our websites

SH2 Waihī to Tauranga corridor

SH2 Waihī to Ōmokoroa safety improvements

SH2 Katikati to Tauranga speed review

Takitimu North Link