The first of several large and ambitious maintenance and rehabilitation projects is about to kick off and is welcome news to the freight sector, says National Road Carriers.

Waka Kotahi announced last week it will begin one of the largest and most ambitious maintenance and rehabilitation projects to be undertaken in New Zealand – renewal work over approximately 23% of SH1 between Piarere and the Waiouru.

This section of SH1 is ranked third worst in terms of quality on the network, according to the transport agency.

Roger Brady, NZTA regional manager of maintenance and operations, said work said NZTA will be bringing forward the next four years of maintenance and delivering it by the end of 2025.

“Up to 2400 heavy vehicles and 9500 light vehicles use this corridor per day. With an increasing number of potholes, this stretch of road has also seen more maintenance activity required just to maintain the current condition,” he said.

“A new accelerated approach has been designed for a renewal programme on this corridor, which will deliver a series of full block closures along the corridor across 16 months while NZTA rehabilitates and repairs the road.

Justin Tighe-Umbers, CEO, National Road Carriers, said that while the closures will require significant detours for road users, the benefit of planning structured works means NZTA can work with the freight sector to ensure suitable detours are in place, for the minimum amount of time.

“Partial road closures lull us into thinking we are achieving business as usual but in reality, we are simply slowed down for longer due to contractors not being able to utilise optimal conditions to carry out the maintenance quickly and efficiently,” he said.

“This new approach will take some adjusting to, but with the programme of approximately 110 lane kilometres of works being condensed from five years to under two, we think it’s worth the short-term trade-offs.

“No one wants to still be battling down SH1 four to five years from now if it could be done in half that time.

“We will be looking to our members to keep us informed of detour travel times and will be working proactively with NZTA to ensure the alternative routes work for freight and disruption is kept to a minimum.”

The first part of the project will see SH1, from SH5 near Tīrau to the SH1/SH28 intersection near Putāruru, closed from Monday, 9 September 2024 for four weeks. More information, including detour routes, will be shared ahead of time.