Road closures at Mt Messenger

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is getting in early with a warning of a full closure of State Highway 3 over Mt Messenger for one weekend next month, with just five narrow windows for traffic to get through.

Work on resurfacing the section of

SH3 will begin straight after the Easter holiday, on Tuesday, April 2, and, should the weather play along, be completed by Friday, April 19.

There is no viable alternative northern route into or out of Taranaki and to minimise disruption the majority of the work will be done at night, with stop/go traffic control. But from 7pm on Friday, April 5, to 4am on Monday, April 8, the road will be closed completely, only opening every five hours to let traffic through.

On Saturday, April 6, the road will open for one hour from midnight, two hours from 5am, one hour from midday and two hours from 5pm. On Monday, the road will open for one hour from midnight.

Outside of this full closure and the nighttime stop/go control, the highway will be open during the day with a temporary speed restriction in place.

NZTA spokesperson Liesl Dawson said due to the winding, narrow nature of some parts of the highway, and the width of the machinery to complete the work, it needed to be closed to safely carry out the work.

This work is highly weather dependent and the agency advises all road users to regularly check the Journey Planner website for up to date, daily information.

The project is costing hundreds of millions of dollars but the work is not expected to be completed for at least four years.