State Highway 1 travellers have detours and a changing road layout ahead as work continues to get the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway up to 110km/h standard.
Safety improvements and remedial works on the SH1 site require 3 months of “contraflow’’ where all traffic will be sharing southbound lanes then northbound. This creates more working room to hasten progress as contractors complete shoulder widening, pavement strengthening and barrier installation more efficiently.
To prepare for this, crossovers will be established during overnight closures/detours, which also provide an opportunity to shift temporary safety barriers. From Friday 6 September all traffic will be using the southbound lanes for about 2 months.
The closures are between the Horotiu and Taupiri interchanges:
Northbound closures: 2 nights, Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 August, 7pm-5am.
Southbound closures: 5 nights, Sunday 1 September to Thursday 5 September., 7pm-5am.
The northbound detour takes SH1 traffic via Ngāruawāhia on the old highway between the Horotiu and Gordonton Road interchanges. HPMVs must use SH1B, and overweight vehicles need to use SH2/27, under an existing overweight permit.
The southbound detour is SH1B, rejoining SH1 via Lake Road, however heavy vehicles (50 tonnes and above) must continue on SH1B, including the local road detour around Telephone Road, and connect to SH1 again at Cambridge or via SH26 into Hamilton.
2-month detour for SH1C
A new detour is needed while remedial work is underway where SH1C and SH1 merge. All northbound SH1C traffic from Te Rapa/Horotiu will turn at the Northern Interchange and go south on SH1 to turn around at Resolution Interchange and proceed north on SH1. This 24-hour detour runs from Friday 6 September for about 2 months. The detour will add about 8 minutes to journeys.
The 12.3km Ngāruawāhia section, which runs from the Horotiu to Gordonton Road interchanges, opened in late 2013. It was built by Fletcher Construction under a design and construct contract. The current works are led by Fletcher Construction with the repair portion being completed under a cost-sharing arrangement with NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).
The works are expected to finish in mid-2025 although NZTA and its contractors are continuing to look at programming and resources to finish the job earlier.
