New highway work begins
Years of pain for motorists crossing the North Island are a step closer to healing, with the start of a major highway project.
Construction of Te Ahu a Turanga, a new highway across the lower North Island, begins today with a ceremony at the Woodville end of the project.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Transport Minister Michael Wood, as well as local MPS, mayors and iwi representatives, will mark the start of construction of a road nearly four years in the planning.
Manawatu¯ and Tararua were linked by State Highway 3 through the Manawatu¯ Gorge until landslips and the risk of a hillside collapsing closed the road in April 2017.
Steep and winding alternatives – the Saddle Rd and Pahıatua Track – have been used since, carrying more than 6000 vehicles a day.
These roads have degraded significantly and crashes have become regular occurrences since the gorge road’s closure.
Te Ahu a Turanga will be a significant upgrade on the gorge road, with four lanes, 1.5-metre wide shoulders, a central median barrier and a separate path for walkers and cyclists.
Wood said the new road would move freight faster between Manawatu¯, Tararua, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa, helping the regions’ economic growth.
The hundreds of people working on the highway, with the aim of locals making up 60 per cent of the workforce, would further aid growth, while the cycle path would encourage tourism, Wood said.
The road cuts through farmland and skirts the edge of QEII covenant land, but the overall project will involve the planting of about 2million trees.
That includes 46 hectares of native forest and pest control in 300ha of forest reserve, Wood said.
The new highway’s name mirrors that given to a peak above Te piti-amanawatu Gorge where Turangaimua of Rangitane – the son of Turi, a captain of waka that sailed from Hawaiki as part of the Maori migration to Aotearoa New Zealand – was killed.
Iwi in the area have been heavily involved in the planning of the road, working with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and its partners.
Wood said the relationships between the agency and iwi set a great example for upcoming infrastructure projects.
The road, costing $620 million, is expected to be ready by 2025.