Cut 28 looking east towards Woodville.
After a well-deserved Christmas and New Year break, our teams are back into it for what will be another big year for Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway.
We’ve got some significant milestones coming up for the project in 2023, but we should first acknowledge what we achieved last year.
In 2022, our earthworks teams made huge progress, bringing the total volume of earth moved to 4.5 million cubic metres since construction began in 2021.
At Parahaki Bridge over the Manawatū River our team completed the first pier, while also completing the piles for piers two and three.
Over the river at the Eco-Viaduct site, the team completed all 16 piles and finished 11 of 12 columns for this 300-metre-long bridge.
The landscaping teams were busy putting more than 490,000 native plants in the ground, while our environmental team were out there protecting the native flora and fauna around the site.
This year we’ll be capitalising on the huge progress made so far, with bulk earthworks on track to be completed by the end of this season.
Earthworks have been mostly completed in some parts of the alignment, such as Fill 9, which can be seen up the hill from the Ashhurst end of the project.
This will be the site of the first sub-grade trials, which involve tests on the base layers of earthworks to make sure the pavement layers will hold up to large volumes of traffic.
At the Woodville end of the project, work continues on the eastern roundabout with a series of culverts being installed.
This is due to be completed before the end of summer, after which bulk earthworks will start in this area, so you can expect to see more earthworks equipment in this area as the summer continues.
Looking up the hill to Fill 20, earthworks will be completed here by the end of January, while Cut 28 further up will be finished later in the year.
We expect the first pavement layers on the main highway alignment to go down later this summer. Pavement is laid in several layers: on top of the general earthworks we place a layer of compacted high quality aggregate, followed by several smaller layers of asphalt before finally sealing the road surface.
We’re also about to lay pavement on the new local road, which forms part of the layout at the entrance to Te Ahu a Turanga from the Ashhurst end.
Although this local road is technically separate from the main highway, this is significant as it’ll be the first pavement laid on the project so far.
Another exciting development this year will be the start of construction of the bridge deck on the Eco-Viaduct bridge on the eastern side of the Manawatū River.
With the final column due to be finished shortly, the team is awaiting the arrival of beams from Napier so they can get started on the next phase.
On Parahaki Bridge over the Manawatū River, pier 2 is now well out of the river and heading towards completion by the middle of this year.
Preparations are underway for the form traveller to be lifted into place for the construction of the bridge deck later this year. The form traveller is a large steel structure that moves out from a pier, allowing the bridge deck to be constructed in sections.
Working alongside our construction teams is our landscaping team, who will be focusing on putting about 450,000 plants in the ground this year, 320,000 of which along the main highway alignment. Previously the planting had been done at five offset sites throughout the region.
For more information about the project, head to www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/te-ahu-a-turanga/ or visit the Woodville Community Library and Information Centre for the latest flyover, project updates and the Drive the Highway simulator.