Project Update – January 2024

Tēnā koe and welcome to the Northland Corridor newsletter

We hope you have been enjoying the holiday season. The team had a great start to the year at our first stop for the Summer Roadshow for 2025 on 11 January, with beautiful blue skies and over 170 people stopping by to talk to us at the Mangawhai Tavern Market about our progress on the project. There are 2 more events in the Summer Roadshow coming up in Waipū and Paparoa, see below for details.

In this edition of the newsletter, we have a short update on the progress being made on Ara Tūhono – Warkworth to Te Hana and an update from our partners for this section, Hōkai Nuku.

Happy New Year from the team and best wishes for 2025.

Summer Roadshow

Thanks to everyone who’s come out to talk to us so far. It’s been great to have so many people attend these events, and to hear the continued support for the Northland Corridor Roads of National Significance project to proceed at pace. You have questions around timeframes, and we will continue to provide information on these when we can.

We’re back on the road this weekend at the Waipū Street Markets on Sunday 26 January from 9am – 2pm, then again at the Paparoa A&P Show on Saturday 1 February from 9am-4pm. We hope to see you there!

What if I can’t make the roadshow?

We know summer is a busy time, so if these dates and times don’t work for you and you’d like to talk to us, feel free to reply to this email or contact us on [email protected]

Our Ecologist Team have been assessing this watercourse located in the Mahurangi Forest.

Section 1 update: Ara Tūhono – Warkworth to Te Hana

Our geotechnical team were back early from the holiday break and have been hard at work for the past couple of weeks. To date we have drilled 66 boreholes with another 30 in progress or scheduled between now and the end of January, 63 cone penetrations tests and 37 test pits. This means over 2060m of core samples have now been drilled. If they were to be laid end to end this would be the equivalent of about 20 rugby fields!

Our project ecologists are underway with assessing the habitat and presence of indigenous wildlife such as birds, bats, lizards, frogs, and snails through Mahurangi Forest in the Dome Valley and other sites between Warkworth and Te Hana. They’re gathering baseline data and have begun wetland monitoring at the Kōurawhero wetland to ensure compliance with resource consent conditions. The team continues to work alongside the geotechnical team to check drilling sites and access tracks to reduce risk to wildlife.

Hōkai Nuku have been assessing Mamaku Fern (Black Tree Fern), raupō (bull rush) wetland and bush block at Kōurawhero.

Hōkai Nuku Update

Hōkai Nuku provides cultural advice to the project on the Ara Tūhono – Warkworth to Wellsford project. They have started baseline Ki Uta Ki Tai, cultural indicator assessments of awa (rivers and streams), wetlands and ngahere (forest and bush) throughout the project designation. They’ve been inspecting sites at Maeneene (north of Te Hana) and Kōurawhero (near Warkworth) looking at the current conditions including the types of awa system, water quality, vegetation types, noting if there is any life in the water and the surrounding vegetation. These assessments are part of the Hōkai Nuku strategic focus to actively protect and manage Nga Taonga Tuku Iho (treasure handed down). They monitor changes to these sites during and after construction to evaluate the effects of construction impacts on these areas and monitor their recovery.

Section 2 & 3 update: Te Hana to Port Marsden Highway and Port Marsden Highway to Whangārei

The team continue to look at options for the proposed route between Te Hana and Whangārei, including an alternative for the Brynderwyn Hills. We’ll be updating people on where we are by the end of the first quarter this year.

See our frequently asked questions for more information and, if you have further questions, feel free to contact us on [email protected].

For more information on the Northland Corridor, please visit nzta.govt.nz/projects/connecting-northland or contact us at [email protected]

Planning your travel over the coming holiday weekends

We’ll stop planned maintenance and operations works on the state highway during the 2 holiday weekends coming up to minimise disruption to people’s journeys.

For Auckland/Northland Anniversary weekend works will stop:

12pm Friday 24 January - midnight Monday 27 January

For Waitangi weekend works will stop:

12pm 5 February – midnight Sunday 9 February

It’s a good idea to plan ahead to avoid the busiest times for traffic. For the latest travel updates and journey times, check our website before you travel: https://journeys.nzta.govt.nz/