Waka Kotahi is advising road users to expect regular and ongoing disruption throughout the Hawke’s Bay as the region’s summer road maintenance programme kicks off.

Between early October 2022 and April 2023, more than 134 lane kilometres of state highway will be resealed or rebuilt throughout Hawke’s Bay – more than 13% of the region’s state highway network.

“Winter is always tough on our roads, and the damage caused by the particularly heavy rain we’ve seen this winter means we have a big job ahead of us in spring and summer,” said Jaclyn Hankin, regional manager maintenance and operations.

The renewal programme is one of the most significant Waka Kotahi has undertaken. It will include more than 123 lane kilometres of resealing across 141 sites on  state highways in the Hawke’s Bay, nine rehabilitation sites covering nine lane km, 18 thin asphalt sites covering 2.1 lane km and 20 heavy maintenance sites covering 20 lane km on SH2, SH50 and SH5.

“The level of roadworks planned will mean travellers should expect regular and ongoing disruption to their journeys across the region,” Hankin said.

“Because most maintenance work on our state highways requires warm, dry weather, there will be some level of disruption across the network throughout summer. However, plans are in place to complete this work as efficiently and effectively as possible, minimising the overall impact on people using the roads.”

Some of the ways Waka Kotahi and its contractors look to do this is by working with councils and community groups to take into account what else is happening on the network, considering night works where appropriate, packaging works to achieve as much as possible where a road closure or similar disruption may be required to undertake a particular piece of work, and stopping most work ahead of busy holidays, like the Labour Day long weekend.