SH1 Dome Valley

2 December 2022

There’s a lot happening over the next few weeks as our teams tackle an array of tasks before the festive shutdown. Temporary speed limits will be in place at times while this work is completed before returning the road to the posted 80km speed. All of our crews will be off the roads between Thursday 23 December and Wednesday 5 January to minimise disruptions over the busy holiday period.

Flexible safety barriers doing the job

With Stages 3 and 5 completed, we’ve now installed almost 8km of median wire rope barriers and 4.5km of side barriers through the Dome Valley. Since August this year, the wire rope median barriers through Stages 3 and 5 have been hit 17 times. These improvements are already preventing head on and potentially life-threatening incidents, saving lives for years to come.

Wire rope median barrier south of Dome Summit

Plan ahead: overnight closures

To ensure a smoother ride for road users, chipsealing will continue to take place under a full road closure between 8pm and 5am from Sunday 4 December to Thursday 8 December. These chipseal sites are next to the asphalt sites that were recently completed.

While the night work takes place, State Highway 1 will be closed to all traffic between Wellsford and Warkworth. A detour will be in place between Woodcocks Road, West Coast Road, Kaipara Coast Highway and Port Albert Road.

While we’re working in this area, general maintenance activities, guardrail repairs and line marking will also take place. If you’re travelling between Auckland and Wellsford, please use SH16.

Te Araroa crossing

We’re cracking on with work to improve the safety for walkers crossing SH1 at Dome Valley Summit to link up with the Te Araroa Trail. It began with vegetation removal and most of the work has been carried out at night, including the installation of concrete median and side islands and footpath construction along the top of the slope to Kraack Road. This work will be completed ahead of the busy summer walking season.

When this work is complete, this will just leave Stage 1 of these safety improvements, the 3km section south of Wellsford, to upgrade. This is still undergoing detailed design and we’ll be able to update you further in the new year.

The new footpath takes shape near Kraack Road

Northland/north Auckland speed reviews –consultation open

Thanks to everyone who took the time to share feedback during the May/June public consultation process. Since we were last in touch, there’s been a new approach for managing speed. We’re now re-consulting on some pieces from the May/June consultation, under the Interim Speed Management Plan.

For the new motorway Ara Tūhono - Pūhoi-Warkworth, we’re proposing safe speed limits for the northbound off-ramp, the southbound on-ramp and the area between the Warkworth roundabout to north of Johnstone Hill Tunnels.

Consultation is open until Monday 12 December – find out more and have your say by visiting our website: www.nzta.govt.nz/ISMP

For more information on the SH1 Dome Valley project, or to add others to our database to receive these updates, contact northlandproject@nzta.govt.nz or
visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/DV