Princess Street intersection

Additional funding secured for SH3 Waitara to Bell Block safety improvements

We’re pleased to announce that the Waka Kotahi Board has now approved the refined concepts for intersection improvements between Waitara and Bell Block along with $53m in additional funding to deliver the project.    

Roundabout concepts for the intersections at Princess Street, De Havilland Drive/Airport Drive, Waitara Road, and State Highway 3A (Mountain Road) were recently refined to help reduce land and stormwater requirements and associated costs.

The Waka Kotahi project team undertook this process to speed up construction, after it identified roundabout concepts developed in the 2018 business case would take a number of years to progress. 

There’s still a lot of work to do but now we have approval of the concepts and additional funding, we’ll be able to get on and deliver the project without further delay.

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we've worked through this process.

We’ll continue to work with our partners to progress consents, land acquisition and design over the coming months. 

Our aim is to start constructing the first roundabout in the 2021/22 summer construction season, but this is dependant on land acquisition and obtaining the necessary consents.

You can read our recent media release here

What's next?

Conversations with landowners and stakeholders 

Now that the concepts are confirmed we have more certainty on what land we will need to deliver this project.

Over the coming weeks we're aiming to get in touch with all property owners neighbouring the intersections to discuss potential impacts to their properties.

We’ll also talk to transport representatives, emergency services and other stakeholder groups. 

Community drop-in sessions

In the coming months we’ll hold drop-in sessions for the wider community. This will be an opportunity for the public to see the proposed safety improvements and give feedback. We'll be in touch with further details about these events soon.

More information

For more information on the SH3 Waitara to Bell Block project, contact us at w2bb@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/w2bb