Takitimu North Link

Contractor’s newsletter - Te karere a te kaikirimana

6 December 2024

Ngā mihi manahau ki a koutou katoa i a tātou e huritao ana ki ngā kokenga whakaharahara o tēnei kaupapa tūāhanga nui i te tau 2024. Kei tēnei mātārere o te kaupapa o Te Ara o Takitimu ki te Raki ka āta titiro tātou ki te wāhimahi o Wāhanga 1, e 6.8km te roa. Meri Kirihimete ki a koutou otirā e tāria ana ngā kōrero hou ā te 2025.

Kia haumaru te haere.

Greetings to everyone as we reflect on the great progress this major infrastructure project has made in 2024. This edition of the Takitimu North Link project newsletter features a close up look across the 6.8km Stage 1 site. Merry Christmas and we look forward to sharing more updates in 2025.

Safe travels.

Progress to date

This month marks 3 years in construction and great progress on this Road of National Significance including achieving 1.5 million cubic metres of earthworks, completing 4 of 10 bridges and finishing work on the local road layout at Cambridge Road in October - one of our most disruptive work areas for people passing by. We’re also pleased to tick off the first season of landscape planting with 70,000 plants now in the ground out of more than 900,000 required along the length of project.

If you want to look at it in numbers, in total, this project includes the construction of 10 bridges with a combined length of 1,535 metres, 3 million cubic metres of earthworks, 19 culverts, 8 stream diversions and 7 wetlands.

This new 4-lane expressway between Tauranga and Te Puna brings strong safety benefits and increased productivity for people travelling through the western Bay of Plenty enabling people and freight to move around efficiently, quickly, and safely.

Construction is currently estimated to be completed in early 2028.

Public consultation on tolling has provided an opportunity for communities to give feedback on the tolling proposal for the project. Consultation ended on Monday 7 October 2024. The final decision rests with Cabinet on the advice of the Minister of Transport.

Project fast facts

• Over 200 people working on the project.
• More than 2000 people inducted and worked on various aspects of the project to date.
• 2 million hours worked since project started.
• 200 subcontractors engaged with half of those local businesses.
• 4 bridges built.
• 1.5 million cubic metres of dirt moved.
• 9 kilometres of piles driven.
• 11,000 cubic metres of concrete poured.

Pictured above: The Wairoa Valley and Wairoa Road Overbridge.

Look out for the ‘break through’ underneath Cambridge Road Bridge

Construction work at Cambridge Road, between Bethlehem and Tauriko, was completed in October 2024.

This area of the project has involved a combination of skills and disciplines to finish this complex work, including relocating services, drainage, constructing the new 100m Cambridge Road Bridge and associated tie-in works, constructing the new road level and roundabout at St Andrews Drive, and relocating Harrison and Cambridge Roads.

Working with Tauranga City Council, we have been able to improve this previously tricky spot for road users. Now there are better sight lines and a safer intersection with left and right turning lanes.

Works in the area have also allowed for future development of the Smiths Farm area, with a 25m bridge under construction and a fourth leg providing access from St Andrews Drive roundabout.

The expressway will be built underneath the new Cambridge Road Bridge.

Pictured below: The intersection/connection from St Andrews Drive roundabout to Cambridge/Moffat roads opened 7 October 2024. The new bridge at Cambridge Road is pictured in the foreground – earthworks are due to break through underneath this summer.

SH2/Fifteenth Ave

If you travel through Tauranga’s SH2/Fifteenth Ave intersection you will have noticed earthworks underway – and some pretty clever driving of big machinery in a narrow, steep work site.

Works are underway to build a new 128m bridge connection to SH29/Takitimu Drive Toll Road (TDTR), providing a better-connected journey for people travelling from Tauranga towards Te Puna, Tauriko and the Kaimai Range.

Crews have shifted nearly all of the material required from this location so far, making great progress to begin construction of a 120m retaining wall. Piling for the new bridge will start early 2025.

The entrance to Edgecumbe Road and the westbound lane will remain closed through to mid-2026 while these major works take place. Remember if you’re passing by, to keep to the speed limit to keep everyone safe.

Creating access to enable the new retaining wall construction at Fifteenth Ave.

SH29/Takitimu Drive Toll Road Flyover

Great progress is being made for the flyover bridge at SH29/TDTR, with piling finished and the first of 33 beams have been installed. The 363m bridge is a Super-T structure consisting of 11 spans with the longest being 37m. Each beam weighs about 51 tonne – they make their journey to site from the HEB pre-cast yard in Te Puke where they are manufactured.

The design of the future SH29/TDTR interchange includes the flyover bridge to the west of SH29/TDTR, spanning a section of one of Australasia’s largest urban wetlands – the Kopurererua Valley Reserve. The flyover bridge is due for completion mid-2025.

A roundabout provides the entry point onto the new highway, and on the eastern side of SH29/TDTR a slip lane will keep traffic flowing from Tauranga CBD towards Tauriko. Work on the new roundabout, slip lane and the flyover bridge is well underway, so people passing through this area can expect to see lots of activity and progress in coming months.

Early 2025 there will be some changes for road users as traffic is switched onto temporary lanes allowing for pavement widening work to be carried out, the temporary speed limit will remain at 70km/h throughout. Traffic switches will happen every few months in 2025 to keep the traffic flowing around a very busy construction site, so keep an eye out for further updates.

In mid-2026 traffic will switch onto the newly constructed bridge and slip lane while the roundabout construction works take place. Work in this area is expected to be completed in mid-2027.

The first beam arrives for the SH29/Takitimu Drive Toll Road Flyover.

World Clean-up day

It was world clean-up day in September – to do our part for the community and our local environment, a few our crew met up after work on the Friday to do a Wairoa Riverbank cleanup. In just 30 minutes we had managed to collect almost 20kg of rubbish from along the banks of the river in the reeds and the grassy area next to the car pull over area. Thanks to everyone from site who came out to help clean up! We look forward to doing more in future.

Meet Steph and Campbell from the environmental team

We meet 2 of the project’s environmental team members who have both found their way into jobs they initially didn’t know existed and support their love of the outdoors and the care and protection of our unique environment in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Steph talking to local school children about the project’s mokomoko rehoming programme.

Steph Kirk - Environmental Manager

The construction industry wasn’t really on my radar as a career, and I didn’t know that environmental jobs existed in this field. Joining the Airforce as a helicopter pilot was my focus while at school but after realising I didn’t want to go to war, I changed my plans to study BScTech (Environmental Planning) at Waikato University.

I am a keen hunter, fisher, mountain biker, diver and hiker and love anything outdoors so I was keen to have a career where I could work in the environment I love. I have now spent 10 years working in the construction industry, and absolutely love it! Previously I worked on the Hamilton Section of the Waikato Expressway and the Turitiea Wind Farm Project, New Zealand’s largest windfarm construction.

I have worked on the Takitimu North Link project for 3 years and I’m not bored yet! There are heaps of challenges, twists and turns which keep it interesting. I also really enjoy working with my team and the other people we have here on the job.

Career highlights:

• The opportunity to put NZ on the global map, speaking in America about the environmental work we do in construction here in NZ.
• Being appointed as a director for the Australasian International Erosion Sediment Control Association (IECA).
• Going hunting at night in the Tararua Ranges while working on the windfarm.
• Becoming a certified bat ecologist. 

Project highlights:

• Getting our own project specific fish permit.
• Winning the IECA Innovation and Environmental excellence awards in 2023.
• Surviving La Nina 2022 and the 2023 rainfall events.

Campbell defishing on site.

Campbell Harrison – Environmental Advisor

All my life I’ve had a passion for the outdoors and our environment. While I love hunting and fishing, conservation is important to me, so I am mindful of how these activities can affect the ecosystem.

Growing up, I had always wanted to get into the construction industry and work on big jobs, but I never quite knew what exactly in construction I wanted to do. After leaving school I bounced around various labouring jobs before landing a job with Fulton Hogan. When I started, I had no idea that environmental was a division in construction and fell in love with it. So to be paid to work on my passion is amazing to me.

Doing something I love makes it easy to work hard, rising up the ranks and making a good career out of it. I was eventually made leading hand gaining a lot of responsibility and then when the opportunity to become an Environmental Advisor come about, I didn’t hesitate to apply.

I am now studying for an environment management qualification which is something I didn’t expect to be doing as I thought I wouldn’t ever study again after I had finished college.

Te Rangi tua nehe / Minden Gully bridges

The final girder has been placed for the on-ramp bridge being built across the Te Rangi tua nehe Minden Gully site recently. There is a heap of activity at this area of site with works underway to build a diamond interchange at the western end of the project. The bridges sit 23m above the gully floor.

The 72.5 tonne lift required a 90m boom – the biggest radius lift Pollock Cranes has done in NZ – to lift this 32m beam. More than 13,000 bolts have been used to build the 3 bridges.

This is one of the project’s busiest work sites, with the next activities for this site involving placing pre-cast deck panels, and concrete pour.

What a difference a year makes

Progress on the project has been significant in the past year with our main worksites looking markedly different over this time.  Along with the good weather, which has helped enormously after the heavy rains in the 2022/23 construction season, the various teams that make up the project have been applying their skill and expertise to the tasks at hand. Below are some before and after pictures that have captured this work.

January 2024 and November 2024

SH2/Fifteenth Ave

Earthworks are well underway allowing the construction of the 120m long retaining wall. The piling for the new bridge will start in the first quarter of 2025.

November 2023 & November 2024

Cambridge Road Overbridge

Work is now complete, and traffic is running on the new alignment including the Cambridge Road Bridge. The new alignment of Cambridge Road east is complete with improved sight lines with the first 40 metres of the new Smiths Farm Road being used for construction traffic.

November 2023 & November 2024

Te Rangi tua nehe/Minden Gully

You can now see this area of site taking shape. The on-ramp is on the left of the photo, with the main alignment in the middle and the off-ramp on the right. This structure is located approximately 25 metres above the Minden Gully floor.

November 2023 & November 2024

SH29/Takitimu Drive Toll Road Flyover

The beams for the SH29 Takitimu Drive Flyover Bridge are being put into place. This bridge is 363 metres long and will provide a flyover lane when heading from Tauriko towards Tauranga CBD, the Port of Tauranga and Mount Maunganui.

November 2023 & November 2024

Wairoa Valley

The Wairoa River Bridge has 3 spans installed with piling continuing. The bridge will be approximately 10 metres above the riverbank. The fill on the western side of the river is nearly at full height with surcharge materials coming in. Structural fill is being brought into the eastern side of the river to get to the required height.

November 2023 & November 2024

SH2 western tie-in

Over the last year we have installed environmental controls, completed 2 sections of permanent stream diversion, 1 section of temporary stream diversion, cut and fill are progressing well and the Te Oturu Culvert has been established, soon to have beams placed on it.

Meri Kirihimete me te tau hou 2025

From the Takitimu North Link Stage 1 project team, we wish you a joyful and safe festive season and look forward to sharing more project updates with you in the New Year.

More information

Read more and sign up for updates about the project at:
nzta.govt.nz/takitimunorth

Takitimu North Link Stage 1 Project Team
Te Tira Mahi o Te Ara o Takitimu Wāhanga Tuatahi

Phone - waea ki 0800 865 776
Email - īmēra info@takitimunorthlink.co.nz
Website - paetukutuku nzta.govt.nz/takitimunorth