SH1 Tīrau to Waiouru maintenance update

20 October 2025

Taupō to Tūrangi - Kiko Road and Motuoapa: Enabling work started at the southern end of Motuoapa today (Monday 20 October) and will continue until approximately Thursday 30 October, using daytime stop/go at both sites. We will not be working on Labour Weekend to ensure we minimise disruption. Daytime work is Monday to Friday, between 7am and 6pm. In November this will move to overnight stop/go for road rebuilding. Overnight work will be Sunday to Thursday, between 7pm and 6am.  Outside of working hours, the road will be open under temporary speed restrictions.

SH1 Taupō to Tūrangi: Night work continues at Hatepe Hill using stop/go traffic management.  Work at Hatepe is Sunday to Thursday, please prepare for some delays. Overnight work may commence at Waitahanui this week, subject to weather as we move out schedule around.

We can’t control the weather

We say it all the time but the one thing we can’t control on this job is the weather. While we had a fantastic summer for roadworks last season, warm and dry, the weather for this summer is not looking so fine.

You may have seen reports of multiple cyclones expected, and Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly NIWA) is forecasting a particularly wet summer which is not great for road works, and really not great for laying asphalt, which is our main job this season.

We have already had to move start and finish dates around for our Tīrau and Putāruru to Tokoroa work. We expect dates to continue shifting as we adjust the schedule to accommodate the rain.

Depending on how many days we lose it may mean we need to add extra shifts which could see us work on Fridays or even during the day. Please bear with us. We can’t control the weather.

Tīrau - we’ve finished our first section!

Our work at Tīrau is now complete. We wrapped it up on Thursday night last week.

During the works we have rebuilt sections of SH1 between the Rose Street/Hillcrest Street intersection and the Tīrau roundabout at SH1/SH5.  We improved drainage, replaced a catchpit, and completed other maintenance work in the area and south of the roundabout.

Thanks for your patience while we completed this work.

Tokoroa to Ātiamuri works starting 9 November

We’re returning to do the final surface on approximately 8.2 kms of SH1 between Tokoroa and Ātiamuri. This overnight work is currently scheduled to start on Sunday 9 November and will continue for 20 night shifts (weather dependent).

We will need to close the road overnight during this work because of the volume of asphalt we are laying across lengthy sites.

We will complete the northern 2 sites (north of Kinleith Road) first and then shift to the southern sites (south of Kinleith Road) to minimise the length of the detour routes. Work will start at Campbell Road and near the Kinleith overbridge first, then we’ll move to sites near Barron and McCracken Roads.

We are working with Kinleith mills to manage access for mill workers. Letters to residents in the work area including detour maps will be shared within the next week.

Kiko Road and Motuoapa

Enabling works are complete at Kiko Road and we have started enabling work at the southern end of Motuoapa today (Monday 20 October). This will continue until approximately Thursday 30 October, using daytime stop/go. We will not be working on Labour Weekend to ensure we minimise disruption.

These photos below show the enabling works at Kiko Road last week.

These photos below show the areas we are fixing at Motuoapa. Once we finish the enabling works, there will be a break until we return to complete the road rebuilding and asphalt.

Hatepe Hill

The team has been making good progress at Hatepe Hill where they have finished the southbound lane. They have laid an average of 400 tonnes of asphalt each night so far in this area and are about 70% complete.

We know asphalt is the preference for drivers but we’re not able to lay it on all our jobs around New Zealand. This Radio NZ story explains the difference between asphalt and chipseal and its use on local roads – those are the roads managed and maintained by councils.

Hatepe Hill showing one of the asphalted lanes.

Desert Road works are coming in January

We will be returning to SH1 Desert Road in early January 2026 to complete the final seal on areas we rebuilt last season.  We are completing the final surface on approximately 10kms of the road. We always complete the final surface up to 12 months after the initial work, so the road has had time to settle.

The areas we are working in are between Potu and Rangipo (2.4km), Puketarata Hill (4.1km), Mangamate (0.7km), Oturere Hill (1.7km) and Mangatoetoenui (1.1km).

This work will require a night closure, particularly while we are working in the area known as the 3 Sisters, because of the narrow road width that we are laying asphalt on. This section of SH1 is very narrow and winding and does not allow for stop/go traffic management while the final surface is applied. We are finalising the schedule and dates for these overnight closures.

More information

For more information on the SH1 Tīrau to Waiouru maintenance, contact us at SH1Waikato@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website nzta.govt.nz/t2w