Road re-sealing crews are off the road for Christmas in Northland

The NZ Transport Agency says it’s completed its road repair and re-sealing programme for 2018 on 133 kilometres of state highway in Northland.

“That’s been a great effort from our crews on one of the country’s biggest road maintenance programmes,” says the Transport Agency’s Northland System Manager Jacqui Hori-Hoult.

Road re-sealing will pause over the Christmas – New Year holiday period. The crews are off the road from today (20 December) and don’t start again until 7 January. But some will be on standby for emergency repairs and bad weather events to ensure the network remains open and safe for our customers over the holidays.

“Recent wet weather means we were not able to do the main road surface repair work at SH1 Hikurangi as planned before Christmas. But we have completed drainage works and we’ll be back to start work again in the second week of January.”

“We have made safe a number of areas on our network, such as SH10 Taipa, SH12 Rawene, SH12 east from Matakohe. Temporary speed limits will remain in some places. We also have a repair next year for SH14 Tangiteroria.”

“The Northland team would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and urges everyone to take care on the roads.”

“Please remember we share our Northland roads, towns and beaches with a lot of visitors over the holiday period. They’ll be driving in unfamiliar environments, adding to increased traffic volumes and congestion, ” says Ms Hori-Hoult.

Some safe driving tips:

• Drive to the conditions - whether it’s the weather, the road you’re on, the time of day or amount of traffic.
• Avoid fatigue. Take regular breaks to stay alert.
• Keep a safe following distance from vehicles in front so you can stop safely.
• Be patient – overtaking is unlikely to make a significant difference to your journey time due to the amount of traffic expected over the weekend.
• Allow plenty of time. Remember you are on holiday, so there’s no need to rush.

“The best Christmas present you can give to your family is you, so drive safely,” says Ms Hori-Hoult.

Plan ahead for a safe, enjoyable journey this summer. Keep up to date with:

• Traffic updates: nzta.govt.nz/traffic(external link)
• Facebook: facebook.com/nztaakl(external link)
• Twitter: twitter.com/nztaakl(external link)
• Journey planner: journeys.nzta.govt.nz(external link)
• Phone: 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49)

Electric vehicle charge stations: www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/ev-chargers(external link)