SH25/SH25A Thames-Coromandel

11 April 2024

Overnight roadworks for Tairua from Sunday 14 April

State Highway 25 through the Tairua town centre is getting a facelift with new asphalt being laid next week.

The work will be done overnight beginning on Sunday 14 April and will require a series of short road closures each night.

The road will be fully open during the day, with temporary speed restrictions in place.

The roadworks will be done between 8.00pm and 6.00am for up to 5 nights, depending on weather. There will be a series of stop/stop road closures each night to enable the teams to lay the asphalt quickly and safely. This means the road will close for around 30 minutes at a time, and then reopen to a single lane to allow traffic to clear. 

A 3 hour closure will be in place from midnight Sunday 14 April until 3.00 am Monday 15, to allow for resurfacing on the narrow northern approach to the Pepe Stream bridge.

Resident and business access will be available from either side of the worksite. Some parking will be available during closures and only emergency service vehicles will be able to travel through the worksite.

We understand that road closures can be frustrating, but they allow us to get work done efficiently and quickly, meaning we can restore the road to normal traffic and your journeys are smoother and safer in the shortest time possible.

The Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions have had the largest regional road renewals programme in the country this summer, making up 33% of the national programme. Over this summer 100 lane kilometres of road was resurfaced or rehabilitated across SH25, SH26 and SH27, with a further 12 lane kilometres completed on SH25A before the road was reopened.

Karangahake Gorge works from Monday 15 April

SH2 will be reduced to a single lane in the Karangahake Gorge from Monday 15 April as work to repair an underslip, opposite Victoria Battery, gets underway. 

This work is part of the Coromandel recovery programme and will take between 4 and 6 weeks to complete, depending on the weather.

The road will be reduced to a single lane with stop/go traffic management and a speed restriction in place while work is being done.

More recovery work sites underway across SH25

Work begins this month on 5 more sites around the Coromandel and Hauraki districts as part of our programme to repair damage caused by last summer’s severe weather.

Our teams start repairs at Te Kouma, Pumpkin Hill, and Whiritoa Hill on SH25, while further afield work also gets underway on SH2 Karangahake Gorge and SH27 Kaihere. 

At each site, the road will be reduced to a single lane and involve stop/go traffic management while the work is done.

We have been fortunate to have the weather on our side this summer and have already completed works at other sites at Pumpkin Hill and one at Te Kouma.  We expect to complete the large site at Wharekaho, and another at Kereta by the end of the month.

We’re hoping for dry and settled autumn weather so we can get these completed before winter. Drainage and seal repairs are also underway between Whiritoa and Waihī.

Work also continues at Ruamahunga, with the first of three faces already completed on that large slip. Fortnightly helicopter activity also continues to restock supplies needed at the top of the slip. These are done midweek, over the middle of the day when traffic is quiet.

We are progressing with the detailed designs for a further 8 sites on SH25, and while any work that involves significant earthworks will pause over the wetter winter months, we will continue working where we can to complete this important work.

The pictures below show progress at the large underslip site near Wharekaho - below left shows the site at the beginning of March, and below right at the end of March

The team installing coconut matting across the top of the Ruamahunga slip

Hikuai bridge overnight closures in May.

Remedial work is planned for the Hikuai bridge in mid-May. This work will require several overnight closures across a two- to three-week period, and temporary speed limits during the day. We will provide confirmed dates and more details about this work in early May.

Safety improvements on SH25A

From early April, new signage and hazard warning signs, improved road markings and audio tactile profiles (rumble strips) will be installed along SH25A to make the road safer. This work will be done overnight over several weeks, with stop/go traffic management in place.

More information

For more information on the SH25/SH25A Thames-Coromandel project, contact us at coromandel@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/thames-coromandel