Source: New Zealand Transport Agency
A stretch of State Highway 2 at Devil’s Elbow north of Napier will be closed overnight in the first week of November, as the rebuild of the cyclone damage Devil’s Elbow continues.
The state highway between Tūtira and Aropaoanui Road, north of Napier will be closed from 9pm to 5am each night between Sunday 3 November to Thursday 7 November. The road will be open as normal from 5am on Friday 8 November.
During daytime hours, the road will be under traffic management through the Devil’s Elbow section.
Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC) alliance crews, on behalf of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, will spend the 5 nights at Devil’s Corner realigning the single lane to move traffic away from the worksite. This is preparation for the recovery project starting later this year.
Devil’s Corner, which has been labelled Project I, will be the largest, and last, of the recovery projects in the SH2 Devil’s Elbow section. Cyclone Gabrielle caused a significant underslip that damaged the southbound lane of SH2 at the corner.
TREC Hawke’s Bay project spokesperson Chris Mahoney says this site has been down to one lane since Cyclone Gabrielle and the type of preparation work taking place can’t be done under short closures.
“We’ll be using the whole width of the single lane road to do the preparation works including widening the single lane, putting down new pavements, drainage, new barriers, and clearing the slopes above the road. This will create more space for the crews and machinery to safely access the worksite as the project progresses.
“We understand this overnight closure will be frustrating, however, it enables us prepare for work at Project I and ultimately restore two lane access in the area. Thank you to road users for their continued support,” says Mr Mahoney.
The extensive repair is expected to take about 12-18 months and will be completed in stages. This complex repair will require ongoing closures starting in summer and throughout 2025 to restore the road back to two lanes.
Next month’s work is weather dependent. The contingency period is Sunday 10 November to Thursday 14 November, 9pm-5am each night.
Meanwhile, a variety of other night work continues in the area including shoulder widening, culvert installation, culvert inlet and outlet works, pavement works, asphalt surfacing and guardrail works.
These overnight works will take place under the existing traffic management, so people travelling will experience similar travel times as during the day.
SH2 Devil’s Elbow road closure for November 2024 [PDF, 218 KB]
