SH2 Wairarapa highway improvements

10 June 2022

June 2022 update

Welcome to our 2nd update on the SH2 Masterton to Carterton safety improvement project. If you know anyone who might be interested in these updates, they can sign up on this webpage here.

Site works off to a good start

Site investigations

In our previous issue we outlined the site investigations work planned through May.

We got off to a good start and some of the “early works” have been completed including:

• Topographical surveying
• Geotechnical investigations
• Locating underground utilities and services
• Road pavement testing

Relocation of services

We’ve made excellent progress on the nightshift trenching for the relocation of services. This work involves digging trenches across State Highway 2 and laying ducts in them. 

We’re doing this work at night to minimise disruption to traffic.The nightshift teams are full steam ahead and have completed the first block of trenches across SH2, with the balance to be completed over the next few weeks. The overhead power cables will be relocated to these underground ducts in the near future and helps to increase the safety and resilience of the network.

A quick glimpse down the pipeline

Nightshift trenching and work relocating overhead powerlines to underground will be ongoing for a few more weeks. 

Once again, the safety of the road users and of the construction staff are top priority.  A temporary traffic light system is put in place every night at our work site as part of the safety measures for the nightshift trenching. We would like to thank all our road users for your patience, care and understanding while driving past our work sites. 

As part of site investigations there are some soakage tests that still have to be completed. These tests determine the rate at which the ground absorbs water, enabling our teams to accurately design and build soakage pits for collecting incoming stormwater off the road.

We’re now also in the planning stages for widening SH2 in specific areas and further to this, preliminary work on the southern turnaround is scheduled to start in early July. This turnaround is a facility at the end of the planned median barrier, where vehicles traveling southbound from Wiltons Road can turn around to travel back northbound. It’s shown by the orange arrow on the image below:

The main construction work is still scheduled to start during August.

We are keeping a close eye on the weather forecast and keeping fingers crossed that there won’t be too much impact from rain.

If you own a property along SH2 between Masterton and Carterton that is tenanted or leased out, please forward this newsletter on to your tenants, or request them to sign up for updates on this webpage here.

More information

For more information on the SH2 Masterton to Carterton project, visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/sh2-wairarapa.

If you have any specific queries about current roadworks on this section you can contact us on 0800 353 824.