Project Update – December 2024

Tena koe and welcome to the Northland Corridor newsletter.

It’s been all go on our Summer Roadshow the last few weekends. We’ve been to the Kaiwaka Community Markets, Whangārei A&P Show and the Matakana Markets. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to talk with us at these events. It’s been great to hear your questions, update you on the progress and hear your enthusiasm for the project. We will be continuing our roadshow in the New Year with 3 more events, see below for the details of where you can find us.

In this edition of the newsletter, we have an update on helicopters moving machinery into Mahurangi Forest in Dome Valley as we move at pace with Ara Tūhono – Warkworth to Te Hana.

We also share some news from the Far North, with SH1 through the Mangamuka Gorge reopening in time for Christmas.

We wish you and your families a safe and happy Christmas.

Summer Roadshow

With the Summer Roadshow in full swing, we’ve been hearing common themes at our stand. There’s lots of support for the project and you’re pleased we’re working at pace, and you want us to ‘just get on with it’.

We’ve heard you’re pleased Northland is getting this investment in the transport network. You’ve seen the benefits of Ara Tῡhono - Pῡhoi to Warkworth, including shorter travel times, safety, resilience and a smooth ride and there is excitement that we’ll be constructing the corridor to the Roads of Significance (RoNS) standard up to Whangārei.

We’ll be back on the road after the Christmas break at the Mangawhai Tavern Markets on Saturday 11 January 2025 from 8.30am – 1pm. Join us for a chat, we’d love 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]

Section 1 update: Ara Tūhono – Warkworth to Te Hana

Our geotechnical team continue to make good progress with their investigations, successfully completing 49 boreholes and drilling a total of 1385m to date. Their current focus is on investigations for the tunnel alignment in Mahurangi Forest including drilling boreholes as deep as 150m and at an angle to get a 3D view of the ground conditions. The 3D view helps the team better understand fault lines in the area which helps inform the final design.

We have started moving machinery into some hard to access locations within Mahurangi Forest via helicopter. Equipment is being flown into each drilling site rather than cutting paths through the forest. Helicopters will operate 2 days per week and will move machinery to 20 sites over the next couple of months for this current stage of geotechnical investigations. We’ll share photos of the helicopters in action early next year. 

Section 2 & 3 update: Te Hana to Whangārei

We’ll be finalising the emerging preferred corridor north of Te Hana in the first quarter of 2025 and updating people on where we are at.

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

Reconnecting the Far North: Mangamuka Gorge to reopen on 20 December

The team is finalising preparations for reopening State Highway 1 through Mangamuka Gorge on the morning of Friday 20 December 2024 at 12:01 AM. It’s been a huge effort to get to this point and we want to acknowledge the Te Tai Tokerau Northland community for your ongoing support throughout the project.

The gorge has been closed since August 2022 due to severe slip damage caused by extreme weather events. Additional record rainfall in 2023 resulted in further slips, complicating repairs. A new slip in June this year brought the total number of slip sites to 36, with 16 deemed critical.

To find out more about the SH1 Mangamuka Gorge slip repairs visit our webpage.

Before and after of critical slip site A3 – repaired with a piled wall made up of 40 piles and 42 anchors drilled back into the maunga (mountain) for extra stability.

Holiday Journeys

Here’s some tips to stay safe this summer out on the road:

• Check your vehicle is safe to drive before you set off including that your tyres have enough tread (minimum tread is 1.5mm but the more tread, the better the grip) and your lights, wipers and indicators are working.
• Drive to the conditions - whether it's the weather, the road you're on, the time of day or the volume of traffic.
• Keep a safe following distance from vehicles in front so you can stop safely.
• Allow plenty of time and take regular breaks to stay alert.
• Be patient so everyone can relax and enjoy the holidays together.

For more information, check out our helpful holiday driving tips: Driving in the holidays.

We’ll stop most works on the state highway before the busy holiday travel period to minimise disruption to people’s journeys, but it’s a good idea to plan ahead to avoid the busiest times for traffic.

Our Holiday Journeys traffic prediction tool shows predicted traffic flow across popular journeys over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday based on the previous year’s travel patterns. It’ll be updated for this year’s holiday break soon. Because predicted peak times can change based on incidents, weather and even driver behaviour we suggest that you check our real-time Journey Planner before you leave for the latest information on road works, traffic, road closures and delays.

Journey Planner

We wish everyone a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas break!