Work will happen every night except for Saturdays, and should be complete by December 12. Photo / Supplied
Work will happen every night except for Saturdays, and should be complete by December 12. Photo / Supplied
State Highway 29 over the Kaimai Range is scheduled to be partially closed overnight from Sunday, November 21, for up to three weeks for essential maintenance work.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said work will be from 8pm to 5.30am from Sunday to Friday and will be from the intersectionswith State Highway 24 and State Highway 28 at Te Poi on the Waikato side, through to the intersection of SH29 and Cambridge Rd on the Bay of Plenty side.
During the periods when SH29 is closed there will be two 3-1/2 hour windows to allow traffic to pass through in one direction only. The timetable for the works are:
• 8pm to 9pm - SH29 will be fully closed to all traffic while the site is being set up.
• 9pm to 12.30 am - SH29 will be open to traffic travelling from the east (Bay of Plenty) to the west (Waikato).
Resident access will be maintained at all times during the works; however, residents will need to liaise with the traffic control teams onsite.
Waikato System Manager Cara Lauder says the partial closure allows the vital maintenance work to take place while still allowing traffic, particularly trucks, to plan their journey across the Kaimai Range.
"Completing the road maintenance work safely is our priority. However, we know that regular users such as freight want certainty to plan their journey. This partial closure will allow us to get important surfacing work done, while still enabling freight to get to and from Tauranga."
Waka Kotahi has opted for one long window for traffic in each direction rather than more frequent but shorter windows to avoid lengthy queues of vehicles waiting for their turn to cross the Kaimai Range. By having a longer window drivers, especially those in trucks, can plan their journey with greater certainty that when they arrive the road will be open.
During the day the road will reopen to two lanes and there will be reduced speeds through areas that have been recently resealed.
The detours for this closure are significant. Road users are advised to plan their travel according to when the road will be open or use alternative routes.
Any drivers planning to use the east-bound or west-bound travel window during the closures are advised to allow extra time for their journey.
The work is scheduled to be complete by December 12. Work will happen every night during the week except for Saturdays.
Lauder says SH29 over the Kaimai Range is difficult terrain, exposed to many weather events and has high traffic volumes.
"All of these factors create additional challenges for our regular maintenance programme and we'd like to thank those who travel over the Kaimai Range regularly for their patience."
Urgent repair work on the Hikuai River bridge on State Highway 25 south of Tairua will take place on Wednesday, November 10, with a week of night closures to follow later in the month to ensure the bridge remains safe to use.
Waka Kotahi says that on Wednesday work to repair damage to the surface of the single lane bridge will see traffic stopped in both directions for up to half an hour at a time between 9.30am and 4pm. Contractors will ensure the bridge is open for traffic leaving Tairua after school finishes around 3pm.
Then from Sunday, November 28, to Thursday, December 2, the bridge will be closed between 8pm and 5am to allow steel plates to be bolted to the deck.
The single lane Hikuai River Bridge on State Highway 25 needs urgent repair work. Photo / Alan Gibson
"We apologise for the inconvenience to motorists, however, both these pieces of work are necessary to keep the bridge open," says Lauder.
"Like all bridges on the state highway network, the Hikuai River Bridge is regularly inspected to ensure it remains safe to use," Lauder says.
When the night works are taking place later in November the bridge will reopen during the day under a temporary speed limit.
There is no local detour around the bridge, with the only available alternative route using State Highway 25 and State Highway 25A around the Coromandel Peninsula and motorists are advised to plan ahead and delay their travel for outside the closures, where possible.
The Hikuai River bridge requires a full deck replacement and this is expected to be done in 2022.
Road users are encouraged to visit the Waka Kotahi Journey Planner website (journeys.nzta.govt.nz) for up to date information.
