SH1 Taupō projects

Project update

7 September 2023

The new central and side barriers on a section of highway south of Ātiamuri.

SH1 at Ātiamuri being made safer

As one section of life-saving safety improvements nears completion on State Highway 1 in south Waikato, work on another section nearby is about to start.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency contractors have just completed installing central and side flexible safety barriers along a 4.5km section of SH1 from north of Maroa Road to Tram Road south of Ātiamuri.

While the installation of the barriers is complete, there are finishing works required this summer, including final reseals and patches for areas that didn’t receive a second seal due to the unusually wet conditions.

The next section to enter construction is 6.9km of SH1 from the Waikato River bridge near Ātiamuri village to Thorpe Road. This work started today and is expected to take about nine months.

Making SH1 between Piarere and Taupō safer is part of our national Road to Zero road safety strategy. It’s about designing a safer system, which acknowledges that while we all might make mistakes, those mistakes shouldn’t cost lives.

Barriers act like a safety net for vehicles and absorb the impact of a crash. This significantly lowers the chance of people having head-on crashes, or hitting something harder like a tree or power pole.

Further north, safety barriers are proposed between Piarere and Tirau. This will require turnaround bays to be built at four locations. Consultation with iwi, landowners and other stakeholders and the community is under way. The final drop-in session is on Saturday 9 September, 10am-12 noon, at the Tirau Memorial Hall.

For more information see the Piarere to Taupō website

Below: At today's blessing at Ātiamuri were, from left, South Waikato Mayor Gary Petley, Raukawa kaumatua Taihakoa Maui, council cultural advisor Mahu Thompson and Waka Kotahi regional Māori advisor Brian Nicholas.

More work ahead on East Taupō Arterial

Contractors will be back making safety improvements on the SH1 East Taupō Arterial this summer.

Improvement works on the town’s bypass route, including the installation of flexible safety barriers, have been split into three stages.

Flexible side and central safety barriers were completed on the first section between SH5-Napier Road and Centennial Drive in 2022. Next up is a section from Napier Road south to the airport roundabout.

Design work for this is expected to be completed by the end of the year with construction in early 2024.

The last stage, from Centennial Drive to Wairakei, requires some remedial works before the barriers can be fitted and this may happen in 2024 subject to funding.
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Read more here

Airport to Hātepe engagement

We continue to work toward making safety improvements to SH1 between Taupō Airport and Hātepe.

Over the last year, we have been engaging with partners and stakeholders to understand key issues that could input into the project. Over the next six to nine months, we will be working with hapū to develop a Cultural Impact Assessment to understand cultural values, interests and relationships and manage any impacts. 

This, along with the inputs we have received over the past year, will help us determine a draft design for consultation with the community which we expect to share in 2024. 

The project is focused on safety improvements including:

• Installing flexible median safety barriers to prevent head-on collisions.   

• Installing wide centre lines and creating locations to safely pull over along the route. Wide centre lines provide more separation for opposing traffic than standard centre line markings. This helps reduce the likelihood of head-on crashes.

• Installing turnaround bays and access points for local traffic. 

• Widening the road shoulders to give drivers more room and space to pull over in an emergency. 

• Installing some roadside safety barriers where roadside hazards can’t be removed and laying new line markings.

For more information about this project please see our website.

Wide centre lines at Lichfield

A 1.5km section of SH1 south of the Lichfield dairy factory will be widened this summer to create more separation between on-coming traffic.

The widening work will be done in conjunction with summer maintenance works and finish before the Christmas holidays.

A wider centre line will be created – a proven tactic in reducing head-on crashes. Read more about wide centre lines here

Wide centre lines provide added space between traffic.

Busy season for maintenance

This summer will see a significant programme of road renewals on the state highway network through south Waikato, as we look to catch up after the disruption of last summer and continue to improve the overall condition of the network.

There are several sections of SH1 that will be rebuilt this summer, including a 1.4km section south of Lichfield (where the passing lanes are) following the pavement widening mentioned above.

There will also be multiple sections rebuilt between Tokoroa and Taupō, and we are working with our maintenance contractor Downer around how we can complete these as efficiently as possible, to minimise disruption to road users.

These will be completed early in the summer season (October), and more details will be released in the coming weeks.

Overall, approximately 50 lane kilometres of resealing and rebuilding will take place between Piarere and Taupō. This means this corridor will be busy from October onwards, and some days will see multiple worksites in place at the same time.

We encourage you to use the Journey Planner  to view the current road status prior to leaving for your destination.

More information

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

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