Road maintenance season is under way in Northland

Ripu Bhatia Reporter from Community News

State highways across Northland will be repaired and re-sealed over coming months, as Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency’s spring/summer road maintenance programme gets under way.

Northland System Manager Jacqui Hori-Hoult said Waka Kotahi will be delivering a large amount of roadworks within the region this season to improve the roads, increase safety and make people’s journeys more enjoyable.

“Resealing starts this month and ramps up in October as the days become longer and warmer. The warmer weather helps the new seal stick to the road surface,” she said.

“The weather conditions are critical as was demonstrated earlier this year when the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown shut down Northland’s resealing programme. Once out of lockdown resealing resumed, but by then the weather had turned colder and compromised the new seal in some locations, leaving the bitumen exposed in areas such as on SH1 at Hikurangi and south of Wellsford.”

Road rehabilitation – where the road is dug up, repaired and re-laid as new – has been completed on SH12 at Selwyn Park in Dargaville and work is under way on SH14 at Paradise Road intersection.

Rehabilitation work is planned to continue in October and November on SH1 to the south of Whangarei around the Otaika Quarry and in Warkworth near the Hudson Road intersection, which will be done at night to minimise disruption to traffic. Also in October and November, there will be new asphalt laid on SH1 to the south of Warkworth.

In November and December there will be new chip seal on SH11 and SH14, and on sections of SH1 between Kawakawa and Warkworth. While this work will be largely done at night, motorists may experience some daytime delays.

Despite the significant roadworks programme, most work will stop before busy holiday travel periods like Labour weekend, Christmas and New Year, to minimise disruption to people’s journeys.