Asphalting equipment and staff need plenty of room to operate safely

Night closures coming up for SH1 Desert Road

State Highway 1 Desert Road will be closed for five nights from 15 March for resurfacing work in the Three Sisters area.

While work is taking place traffic heading between Waiouru and Turangi will be diverted around the western side of Tongariro National Park on SH49/SH4/SH47/SH41 during the working hours of 6pm to 5am.

The narrow width of the Desert Road in the Three Sisters area means that it needs to be closed for the resurfacing equipment and staff to be able to operate safely. 

This work had initially been planned for spring, but Downer, who maintains the Desert Road, has had the equipment and staff become available so its best to do the work now and make the road as safe as possible for winter. 

The week beginning 23 March there will be separate pavement works happening on the Desert Road, which means the road will be under Stop/Go traffic management during the day.

Read more about this upcoming work here.

Te Pōporo/Bulli Point on 24-hour Stop/Go

SH1 at Te Pōporo/Bulli Point is on 24-hour Stop/Go traffic managment with the overnight sealing work near the point complete.  

This will remain in place until the retaining walls being built at the point are finished, currently expected on Friday 27 March. 

The road will reopen to two lanes for Saturday 28 March and Sunday 29 March before night closures of 7pm to 5am start again on the night of 29 March until Friday morning 3 April and then again on Sunday 5 April until Wednesday morning 8 April. This is to seal the area around the new retaining walls and complete some other finishing work near the Point.

The project team would like to thank motorists for their patience on SH1 while we carry out these important works.

For the full schedule of road closures see our project maintenance programme.

More information

For more information on the SH1 Taupō projects, contact us at taupoprojects@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/sh1-taupo