A major upgrade of key sections of State Highway 1 between Tīrau and Waiouru has been completed, with Transport Minister Chris Bishop confirming 128 lane kilometres of road have now been rehabilitated or resealed.
The accelerated maintenance programme condensed what would normally have been four years of maintenance work into two years, targeting heavily damaged sections of the highway corridor. Bishop said the project involved large-scale block road closures on SH1 to allow intensive reconstruction work to be completed faster than traditional methods would allow.
The Government said the work was funded through the $2.07 billion State Highway Pothole Prevention Fund and covered around 27 percent of the 220-kilometre corridor between Piarere and Waiouru. Officials said the project was designed to address long-standing road deterioration, with 5,670 potholes repaired on the route between July 2022 and April 2024.
The completed works included foam bitumen stabilising, structural asphalt reconstruction, resurfacing, drainage improvements and new roadside barriers. More than 198,000 tonnes of aggregate and 106,000 tonnes of asphalt were used during construction. Around 35 contracting firms worked on the project, with crews clocking up 470,000 hours without any lost-time injuries.
Image credit: Katie Moum
There are more than 5,670 potholes on that route which STILL need fixing
Maybe it’s better to low-pay workers that sending them on the dole, especially because it’s a re-ocurring job due to poor workmanship and bad bitumen. It’s ‘the forever’ employment. Never seen so many road works and road cones as in NZ.