NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has confirmed that formal speed reviews will be undertaken for 16 additional sections of state highway that had been scheduled to automatically revert to previous higher speed limits.

Under the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024, sections of state highway that are classified as urban connectors where speed limits have been lowered since 1 January 2020 are required to automatically reverse back to their previous higher speed limit by 1 July 2025.

“Following publication of the list of auto-reversal locations in January this year, NZTA has received feedback on a number of urban connectors where the community is strongly in support of keeping the current lower speed limits, instead of seeing them reverse,” said Vanessa Browne, NZTA group general manager transport services.

“Following careful consideration of this feedback and past evidence of community support, we can confirm that formal speed reviews on these urban connectors will now be undertaken,” she said.

The formal speed limit reviews will include public consultation, which will be open for six weeks from early April 2025. Further information will be available when consultation opens, including an online consultation survey.

Once the consultation is completed, NZTA will analyse the feedback, alongside technical data and cost-benefit analyses, before decisions are made on the final speed limits for these sections of road.

List of state highway urban connectors subject to formal speed review and consultation:

Separate to the speed reviews listed above, NZTA has also undertaken consultation on 49 state highway locations (rural connectors and interregional connectors) across the country that are also subject to the reversals provisions of the Rule. This consultation closed on Thursday, 13 March 2025. Decisions on the final speed limits for these sections of road will be made before 1 July 2025.