Source: New Zealand Transport Agency
New Zealand’s largest and most ambitious road maintenance project, the Tīrau to Waiouru Accelerated Maintenance programme, reaches a major milestone this week with the reopening of State Highway 1 (SH1) at the Desert Road on Friday 14 March.
SH1 between Tūrangi and Waiouru, including the Desert Road, has been closed to traffic since 13 January. It’s been a major undertaking, with a large amount of work achieved in a short time, says Roger Brady, Regional Manager of Maintenance and Operations for NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).
“In just over 8 weeks NZ Transport Agency contractors have rebuilt and repaired 28 lane kilometres of road, which is 12 lane kms more than planned, and completely rebuilt the deck of the Mangatoetoenui Bridge, 23 kilometres south of Rangipō,” Mr Brady says.
This maintenance work forms part of the government’s $2.07 billion investment into road and drainage renewal and maintenance across 2024-27 via the State Highway Pothole Prevention fund.
“By doing the work under full road closures, more invasive construction methods can be used which would not be possible under stop/go traffic management. It means SH1 is being brought up to a higher standard quickly, and New Zealanders can get back on a quality road surface sooner,” Mr Brady says.
The team is putting in a huge effort to get the road reopened on schedule, laying an average of 500 tonnes a day of asphalt over the last week.
The Desert Road will re-open to traffic from 1pm on Friday 14 March.
Some parts of the Desert Road will reopen under traffic management, including temporary speed limits, while the chipseal is embedded further by the vehicles using the road. This is expected to only be for 3-4 days as the team has spent some time getting this done with the machinery on site.
Road users should be mindful of loose chip and drive to the signposted speed limit, leaving a good following distance from the car in front, ideally 3 car lengths or more is suggested.
While SH1 was closed the detour (from north to south) was via SH41, SH47, SH4, SH49 and back to SH1 in Waiouru. This added around 35-40 minutes to journeys but proved a welcome boon for many businesses along the detour route.
There will be further works required to finish the final surface on the Desert Road later in the year. This work will, wherever possible, be done at night. The scheduling is still being worked through for when this final surfacing will be done.
Here’s what’s been achieved on SH1 in central and southern Waikato since September 2024:
- Lane kms completed: 86.78 lane kms (480,926m2)
- Road rebuild using foam bitumen stabilising completed: 51 lane kms (270,102m2)
- Road rebuild using structural asphalt concrete completed: 4.78 lane kms (26,837m2)
- Re-seals completed: 31 lane kms (162,514m2) – includes chip seal and asphalt concrete surfacing
- Tonnes of aggregate used: Approximately 162,609
- Truckloads of metal: Up to 145 loads per site per day
- Number of workforce hours to date (road crews): approx. 85,000
- Number of lost-time injuries: Zero
- Number of contracting firms utilised: Up to 32 working at once
Short video of the team working on the Mangatoetoenui bridge here:
