Connect Rotorua

2 December 2024

Summer maintenance season underway

Rotorua and the rest of the Bay of Plenty region are benefiting from the national funding injection of over $2 billion for pothole prevention and maintenance, with a significant volume of road renewals planned in this region over the next 3 summers.

Approximately 110 lane kilometres (km) of state highway in the Bay of Plenty will either be rebuilt or resealed over coming summers, with a significant portion of this planned to take place in the next 6 months.

In the Bay of Plenty east, including Rotorua, teams will resurface more than 52 lane km and rehabilitate 9.2 lane km.

A road rebuild is underway on State Highway 36 (SH36) north of Ngongotahā, due to be completed later this month. While the work is underway a lane will be closed between Central Road and Gloucester Road each weekday between 8am and 5pm. Temporary traffic management will remain in place until the road has been line marked.

Future work includes State Highway 5 (SH5) north of Maraeroa Road where works are scheduled to take place from January for 8 weeks.Across the region as much work as possible will be completed before Christmas, then there will be a short break over the holiday period. Crews will then get back into it until autumn sets in.

Resurfacing work is underway on SH33 between Allport Road and Maungarangi Road and is expected to be completed by Friday 13 December.

On SH30, resurfacing repairs are taking place during the day through Rotomā Glade. There will be a break of about a week between finishing the repairs and full resurfacing, to allow the repairs to cure. 

Thanks to favourable weather, some renewal sites kicked off early, with the State Highway 30 (SH30) Sala Street rebuild completed in October.

Lane kilometres count the number of lanes on a road rather than just the distance between point A and B. We measure in this way to give you a more accurate picture of the work being delivered, as it incorporates things such as passing lanes.

The Bay of Plenty state highway network is heavily used by a variety of road users every day, including freight operators, commuters, and tourists.

Road rebuilding can often involve replacing all or most of the structural road layers. It’s intensive work with some sections under construction for extended periods of time.

With so much work taking place it is inevitable road users will come across worksites and traffic management.

We’re always looking at how we can minimise disruption by thinking differently and challenging ourselves and our suppliers to be as effective as possible. This includes using methods such as undertaking works at night and over school holiday periods when traffic flows are lighter, allowing suppliers to work safely, maintain quality, and ensure disruption is minimised.

When you see roadworkers out on the road, travel safely through their site, follow signage and any instructions you receive, and give them a wave to say thanks for their tremendous work.

To plan ahead and see where disruptive works are, people can use the NZTA Journey Planner (journeys.nzta.govt.nz) This is kept up to date in real time so you can see all disruptive activity and potential hazards on the state highway network.

Mangorewa Gorge given facelift

SH36 Mangorewa Gorge has had a facelift!

If you’re travelling through the gorge on SH36/Tauranga Direct Road, be prepared to see changes says Sandra King, Bay of Plenty System Manager at NZTA.

“Last year during a weather event, part of the road dropped away forming an underslip. This meant the state highway was down to 1 lane and under traffic management for many months. During this time temporary repairs were done to keep the road open while engineers designed the new road realignment,” says Ms King. 

Permanent road repairs started in August this year, with crews working hard over the past 3 months to fix the underslip.

As the road is so narrow through the gorge, the decision was made to fully close it for 2 weeks to enable the crew to safely repair it.

During the closure contractors removed 536 tonnes of rhyolite (a type of solidified volcanic rock) from the bank, making the road wider and allowing the road to be realigned,” says Ms King.

Closer to Hamurana, another slip was also repaired as well as other general maintenance on SH36 including clearing culverts, pouring curb and channel and clearing vegetation along the road between Tauranga and Rotorua.

SH1 Tīrau to Waiouru accelerated maintenance project

One of the largest and most ambitious maintenance projects undertaken in New Zealand is underway on State Highway 1 (SH1) in central and southern Waikato where sections of the highway from just north of Tīrau to Waiouru are the focus of accelerated maintenance over a 16-month period.

With the project using block closures to speed up delivery, SH5 has become a key route for the detours. If you're travelling south or west of Rotorua, you may be impacted by one of the detours, or travel on a highway with more traffic than usual.

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.

Using block closures reduces the length of time people are affected by temporary traffic management while we repair the road.

For more information on the project and to see the latest work updates, please visit our website nzta.govt.nz/t2w

Wheels are turning for Ironman Champs

This December the world’s best endurance athletes will converge on Taupō to swim, bike and run the Ironman 70.3 World Championships for 2024.

As part of the cycle leg of the event, SH5 between Wairakei and Golden Springs will be closed from 6am to 5pm on Saturday 14 December and again on Sunday 15 December.

Traffic travelling between Taupō and Rotorua will be detoured via SH1 and SH30 through Ātiamuri while SH5 is closed. Drivers should be aware that Broadlands Road, a common alternative route between Taupō and Rotorua, will also be closed as it is on the cycle route.  

Approximately 6000 competitors and supporters are expected to travel from overseas to take part in the event, with most of them arriving in Taupō up to a week prior to race day.

Regular users of SH5 and Broadlands Road should expect to see large numbers of cyclists on the road in the week prior to the event as athletes familiarise themselves with the course.

To coincide with the event, there will be no SH1 maintenance project work happening between Tokoroa and Taupō during the Ironman and in the week beforehand.

The SH1 East Taupō Arterial is closed until early December, with traffic detoured down Broadlands Road, Ohaaki Road and SH5. The Gravel Grind course for the Cycle Challenge crosses Broadlands Road twice, with Stop/Go traffic control in place to give the crossing cyclists priority in both locations.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) recommends drivers allow extra time for journeys if travelling through work sites or on detours and, as always, we suggest checking www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz for the latest traffic and travel information at any time. 

More information

For more information on Connect Rotorua, contact us at ConnectRotorua@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website nzta.govt.nz/connect-rotorua