SH1 Tīrau to Waiouru accelerated maintenance project update

Section updates and meet Conan the Cone Machine.

21 March 2025

In this week's issue:

• Putāruru to Lichfield: Milling it out before we lay it down fresh
• Businesses are open
• Paving the way: Forging a career in engineering
• Meet Conan. The Cone Machine
• Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. SH1 Desert Road
• Ātiamuri to Wairakei update
• Meet more of the T2W crew
• Taupō to Tūrangi
• It’s a big job: What’s left to do on T2W

Current closures

2 closures between Tīrau and Taupō:

• SH1 Putāruru to Lichfield closed for approximately 2 weeks (early April completion, weather dependent). Detour adds approximately 16 minutes and 18.5km to journeys.
• SH1 Ātiamuri to Wairakei closed for approximately 3 weeks (early April completion, weather dependent). Detour adds approximately 23 minutes and 32km to journeys.

Putāruru to Lichfield: Milling it out before we lay it down fresh

We’ve been bringing approximately 1,200 tonnes of material to site every day on Putāruru to Lichfield as we rebuild the road back stronger. Rebuilding the road in that area will require about 530 truckloads of material in total which we use for overlay. That’s where we mill new aggregate to the existing road to strengthen it. We’re also using this material to reshape and rebuild the road shoulders.

We can only do this huge volume of work in this short time frame by using a full road closure and with between 40-60 truckloads of material being delivered to the site each day, it’s far safer for both road users and our workers.

These photos show some of the milling on site where we break down the existing road and add in the new aggregate. Once we’ve done that, we level it out before we can lay the fresh surface down. The work we are doing now is adding more strength to the road, extending its life and reducing the need for us to come back and cause more disruption in future years.

This work should be finished during the first week of April, weather dependent, and the crew is working as hard as they can to geet it completed on time. 

Other works:

• We will be laying the final surface between Vospers Road and Rollett Road in mid-April, using stop/go traffic management and at night.
• We do need to return to the current area next summer, after the first coat seal is embedded, to complete the final surface. This is programmed to be done under nightworks.

Remember to please follow the detour and signage and stick to the speed limits.and under stop/go traffic management.

Businesses are open

Please remember businesses within our closures are still open. You can still access businesses including Redwood Cafe and Eatery, the New Zealand Timber Museum, Train World and the VTNZ station at Putāruru, and Orakei Korako Geothermal Park and Taupō Pet Lodge near Taupō on our Ātiamuri to Wairakei section. Just stop at the closure point and have a chat with the Traffic Controllers and they will organise a pilot vehicle to take you safely to your destination.

Paving the way: Forging a career in engineering

“There’s a real sense of satisfaction, driving over a piece of road and thinking, yep, I helped build that.” That’s how Downer Site Engineer Morgan Craven feels about her role working on the Putāruru to Lichfield section of the Tīrau to Waiouru Accelerated Maintenance project (T2W).

Morgan joined Downer as an 18-year-old cadet straight out of high school and is forging a bright career in civil engineering. She reckons the highlight so far is getting to work on T2W, New Zealand’s largest and most ambitious road maintenance project.

“It’s a pretty big project; the volume of work is massive. In my role I help monitor quality, site safety and support the connection between the project management side (the work we need to do and the dates we need to do it by) and the operations side of our work (the physical work that makes it all happen). I also do the daily site diaries detailing what we’ve delivered each day.”

Morgan says the road closure has meant they can get the work done so much faster than they would have using traditional traffic management. It also makes the site safer for everyone working on the project.

“It’s a great team to work for and an exciting job.”

Meet Conan. The Cone Machine

We’re big fans of using innovation to get the job done faster on T2W and 1 of the nifty machines we’re using is Conan, an automated robotic cone deployment and retrieval machine.

Conan can deploy and retrieve cones from the road, on either side of the vehicle, in both directions and makes laying out cones more efficient and safer. Conan was originally developed by Traffic Safety Services, in Austria and we have been using it on this project when we open sections of road under traffic management.

Conan helps move the cones in small increments so the fresh chipseal can embed as vehicles drive over it in the process we call ‘traffication’. Along with making it safer and needing less staff and pilot vehicles, Conan also reduces the number of traffic management vehicles motorists need to navigate.

After using Conan on T2W we’re looking at some further adaptations for use on the state highway network in New Zealand conditions and seeing how it can be rolled out on other job sites.

Watch the video to see Conan in action.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. SH1 Desert Road

There were quite a few eager beavers to get back on the Desert Road when we reopened it last Friday. Check out this line up – not quite like the Formula 1 in Melbourne last weekend but close! 

We’d like to thank you all for obeying the temporary speed limits while the chip bedded in over the first few days. The weather unfortunately hasn’t played ball this week so we’re still waiting for the final sweep and to line mark this section so the temporary traffic management will be in place for a bit longer. We hope you’re enjoying the new ride. Let us know.

Video of traffic at the reopening of Desert Road

Ātiamuri to Wairakei update

Check out the progress photos from this week on Ātiamuri to Wairakei. The team is well into their work on this section. We simply could not do this amount of work without the road closed.

The sites Downer is working on require 793 truckloads of material to be brought to the site in the 4 areas they are working in. But don’t forget, we also have Higgins and MS Civil working in the area too. We’re all working together so we can complete all the work that’s needed in this section, under 1 closure. Higgins is completing 6.9km of side and median safety barrier and new seal and doing remedial work on 4.5km of safety barrier. A final surface is also being laid in some sections worked on earlier. Talk about efficient!

Please follow the detour routes and keep to the speed limits.

Meet more of the T2W crew

We have some great people working on this project. They’ve been handpicked for their specialist skills and are passionate about the work they do. They’re committed to delivering road users a better driving experience on the sections of SH1 they’re working on.

Wilson is Paving Operations Lead for Downer. 

“Full road closures are huge for us. It’s definitely helped us deliver the quantities (of work) in front of us.” He’s also a fan of the hospitality in Tūrangi the team have enjoyed while they’ve been working in the area, particularly the T-bone steaks.

Taupō to Tūrangi

You may have read in last week’s e-news, we have made the decision not to do a full 24/7 closure when we do the maintenance on SH1 Taupo to Tūrangi. 

We do have considerable maintenance to do on this stretch of SH1, including some significant bridge work, so there will still be disruptions over a more extended period than if we had used a closure. 

We are currently investigating the best options for getting this work done. This could include stop/go, having 1 lane open and nightworks or a combination of all of these. We are working through this with our contractors and once we have a clearer plan, we will come to the community, freight and businesses to talk about what is proposed, as soon as we can.

It’s a big job: What’s left to do on T2W

The end of the road maintenance season is in sight and that means the Tīrau to Waiouru Accelerated Maintenance project will be taking a hiatus too. We have approximately 2 weeks of work left at Putāruru to Lichfield and 3 weeks left at Ātiamuri, as always, weather dependent.

We still have quite a bit of work to do next season.  

SH1 Desert Road is open now but we will be returning to do the final seal there, most likely under stop/go and at night. We will also be returning to Tokoroa to Ātiamuri and Ātiamuri to Wairakei to do final surfacing work there too. Oh, and we’ll do the final surfacing on the East Taupō Arterial and the road reconstruction work that’s needed between Taupō and Tūrangi and in the Tīrau township.

Why can't we do the final surfacing when we rebuild the road?

To make sure the final seal lasts a long time, we need to let the rebuilt road settle before putting the polish on top of this great work. Allowing the first coat to settle helps to achieve a stable base for the second coat. This reduces the risk of the second coat dislodging or causing surface irregularities. As always, weather conditions dictate when we can apply the second coat to prevent any issues like moisture entrapment.

The end of season doesn’t mean the fun for the project team ends though. We’ll be in planning mode looking at how we roll all that out from September onwards. We are working through this with our contractors and will let you know as soon as possible what we’re planning.

This also means our e-newsletters will slow down so if you have any burning questions that you want us to cover in the next few editions, please email us and we will see what we can do.

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.

Visit our website nzta.govt.nz/t2w

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