If you’re travelling through Rotorua, along State Highway 30 (SH30) Te Ngae Road near Wharenui Road, you’ll see work is well underway to upgrade and install traffic lights at this intersection.
On Wednesday, with minimal disruption to traffic, contractors removed overhead power lines from SH30 Te Ngae Road near the Wharenui Road intersection. With a large crew on site, service providers worked in unison disconnecting power, removing lines and poles, and installing new poles.
As part of the intersection upgrade, we’re increasing capacity and reducing queuing by widening Wharenui Road and controlling turning movements with traffic lights. We’re also making it safer for pedestrians by installing a signalised pedestrian crossing and providing a widened shared path around the intersection.
This work began in February and is scheduled to be completed by mid-2025. It’s the final package of work in the current phase of our SH30 Eastern Corridor Improvements programme.
Stage 1 of the project was completed in February 2022 and saw major improvements from Sala Street to Iles Road. The second stage began later in 2022 and has so far seen intersection improvements and 4-lanes from Iles Road to Basley Road. Pedestrians and cyclists are enjoying the wider shared paths and on-road cycle lanes, and safer road crossings linking key destinations such as Puketawhero Park, local schools and shops. Services were upgraded at the same time.
Future phases between Basley Road and Rotorua Airport will be delivered in response to growth along the state highway and are currently unfunded.
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Waikato Bay of Plenty works as at 14 March 2025 [PDF, 550 KB]
