Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway at critical stage for Christmas opening

Work underway to remove and replace asphalt near the southern end of the expressway in August. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Transport Minister Michael Wood says no one is wasting any time as the Peka Peka to Ōtaki expressway north of Wellington enters a critical stage in its construction.

A pre-Christmas opening is now down to the wire and contractors are relying on good weather to complete sealing work.

A bypass of Ōtaki, the road will join up with the existing Kāpiti expressway to the south and eventually the planned Ōtaki to north of Levin expressway.

The roads, along with the newly opened Transmission Gully motorway, form Wellington’s northern corridor.

Asked whether he was confident the road would open by Christmas as planned, Wood said Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency was working exceptionally hard.

“As with all big transport projects that happen in the open air, it does depend on how the weather plays out over the next month or so because you’re at a critical stage of the sealing process.

“So, they’re working incredibly hard for it, but it will be contingent on that. If not, it will be fairly shortly in the new year.”

Wood said he understood people wanted to see critical pieces of infrastructure opened as soon as possible.

No one was wasting any time and he was receiving weekly progress reports on the road, Wood said.

“Every hour of the day we are working to get it open as soon as we can,” he said.

Last week Waka Kotahi principal project manager Glen Prince said they were doing every they could to get the road open for Christmas, but there was now very little contingency in the programme.

“Our programme is extremely tight. We’re doing what we can at the moment, but certainly nothing is set in stone at this stage.”

Transport Minister Michael Wood. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Prince said there were other problems that could affect the road, along with the weather, like Covid-19 cases starting to crop up in the construction team and residual supply chain difficulties.

The 13km road hit a speed bump earlier this year when thousands of tonnes of asphalt had to be ripped up after problematic pockets of air were discovered.

Air voids outside of the design range were found in about 7900 tonnes of asphalt. This problem can damage the asphalt under traffic, leading to early failure of the road.

The four-lane expressway, of which construction started in 2017, was meant to open in 2020.

Then it was delayed due to an upgrade of the road’s surface with a new pavement design, as well as the addition of a 10km shared path for cyclists, horse-riders and pedestrians.

The road was rescheduled to open in 2021, but then Covid-19 hit and in June last year Waka Kotahi advised it would be delayed until late 2022.