NZTA summer roadshow shares Northland Expressway progress with locals

Got questions about the Northland Corridor? NZTA staff will be on hand to answer them at various markets during the summer.

Staff from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) are hitting the road this summer to share progress on the four-lane Northland Expressway.

The summer roadshow will visit community markets in several towns across Northland to answer residents’ questions about the three sections of the roads of national significance that make up the Northland Corridor.

The first stop was the Mangawhai Community Market on November 23, and is being followed by the Kaiwaka Community Market on November 30, and the Whangārei A & P Show on December 7.

The roadshow will then head to Mangawhai Tavern Market on January 11, the Waipu Street Market on January 26, and the Paparoa A & P Show on February 1.

The Government announced in July it would accelerate work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its roads of national significance programme.

The work includes an alternative route over the fragile Brynderwyn Hills, which have been closed increasingly frequently due to bad weather.

The Northland Expressway’s three phases are:

• Phase One: Warkworth to Te Hana (just north of Wellsford)
• Phase Two: Te Hana to Port Marsden (alternative to the Brynderwyn Hills)
• Phase Three: Port Marsden to Whangārei.

An NZTA spokeswoman said work had started on the first section, with 510m of borehole drilling complete and a full contingent of rigs and people now onsite.

Staff recently attended a walk-over through Matariki Forest in the Dome Valley in preparation for geotechnical investigations, she said.

Helicopters would later be used to move machinery to a few hard-to-access areas of the forest.

Regarding the other two sections, including the alternative route over the Brynderwyns, “the team is continuing to work hard to make decisions about the route north of Te Hana”.

“We’ll be making some decisions about the route from Te Hana to Whangārei by the end of the first quarter of 2025 and will be sharing it with people at that time.”

The spokeswoman said public interest in the progress so far has been high.

More than 4300 people have signed up to receive e-newsletter updates, and Facebook updates have had a total reach of 253,000.

The Brynderwyn Hills road is also being resealed this summer as part of NZTA’s road maintenance and rehabilitation programme.

Overall, the works will see approximately 210 lane kilometres of state highway renewed across the region by the end of May 2025.

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with roading, lifestyle, business, and animal welfare issues.