KEY POINTS:
Work has finally started on an engineering project - in the pipeline for almost 40 years - that will slice 30 minutes off the Auckland-Wellington road trip.
Since the late 1960s, the East Taupo Arterial Highway has been promoted as a must for Taupo's growth to take heavy
traffic away from the lakefront and town centre.
At the beginning of 2007, it finally reached the stage where resource consents could be sought.
The $110 million joint project between the Taupo District Council and the NZ Transport Agency - to be done in four stages - is expected to be completed by the middle of 2011.
Road planners believe the 16km bypass will siphon off at least 10,000 of the 29,000 vehicles a day that use the main road along the lakefront.
The route will run across difficult terrain, through major gullies and an active geothermal area. From the airport south of the township, it will skirt around the eastern side of Taupo and link up again with State Highway 1 at Wairakei. A new bridge will cross the Waikato River.
The highway will cut journey times for traffic heading north and south of Taupo and those wanting to link with the Napier-Taupo Rd (State Highway 5).
For motorists coming from the north on State Highway 1, the bypass will start at the T-junction where they currently turn right and pass the Wairakei geothermal power station, the hotel and golf courses, busy intersections to residential areas and eventually enter Taupo town centre by a narrow bridge over the river.
Instead, they will go straight ahead at the T-junction and across the river on the new bridge.
It is proposed that the route, once built, will get state highway status and be under the Transport Agency's control.
An agreement with state-owned farmer Landcorp has been reached for the sale of land in the highway's path.
Contact Energy has been consulted about reducing the road's impact on its operations at a major geothermal field.
The local council will pay for construction stages one to three, from the airport to Centennial Drive, which is expected to cost about $43 million.
The Transport Agency will fund the $54 million stage four, which includes the bridge.
The cost of the project includes $1.8 million for investigation, $3.2 million in design work and $6.6 million in land purchase. Project manager Ron Boyle said preparatory work was well under way.
More than 150 guests - including Taupo Mayor Rick Cooper and Transport Minister Steven Joyce - will tomorrow be at an official sod-turning ceremony on a section of the new route near Taupo Airport.
