The Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC) alliance is progressing a busy season of state highway road renewals on the East Coast in addition to ongoing cyclone recovery and rebuild work.
Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC)
The road renewal work will continue until March, making the most of the traditional summer season, with warmer temperatures.
“We can only undertake significant road renewals during the warmer, drier months of the year so road users will experience some disruption this summer, particularly if they’re driving long distances during the peak of summer. We understand how frustrating it is to get held up at road works, but this work is crucial to maintain our network. We are conscious of the impact works have on customers’ journeys and work to minimise the overall impact on people and the freight industry,” says TREC’s Hawke’s Bay Journey Manager Andre Taylor.
This year, the maintenance programme is significantly larger, including some work which was deferred from last maintenance season, as a result of the cyclone.
“The cyclone prevented a large number of reseals to be completed, reseals help waterproof the pavement, that coupled with a long winter of particularly heavy rain has been tough on our roads and the damage means we have a big job ahead. There are still many parts of our network that remain vulnerable.”
To reduce delays to those travelling over the Christmas break, TREC will temporarily close most work sites from today (Thursday) to Monday 8 January 2024. There will still be reduced speed limits, traffic cones and one lane sections with traffic lights in places. Please take care and follow all signs and temporary speed limits.
On State Highway 35, crews are working on road reconstruction at seven locations between Tolaga Bay and Te Araroa. A reconstruction involves excavating and rebuilding the road.
Staying on SH35, crews are working on more than 30 reseal sites between Tikitiki right the way south to Gisborne. These sites will remain under stop/go traffic management and likely to be complete next month (January).
On State Highway 2, work is planned for ten road rehabilitations and 42 reseal sites, both north and south of Gisborne.
Over the coming months, TREC crews will be working at more than 150 maintenance sites across Hawke’s Bay.
Work at those sites includes chip seal and asphalt road resurfacing to both waterproof the road and provide better grip along with drainage repairs to give the roads a longer life. Of these sites, 104 of them are resealing work on SH2.
All of the state highways in Hawke’s Bay will be having some planned maintenance. Where there are asphalt sites in Napier, these works will be done at night to minimise disruption for the community.
The recovery work you will also see on the state highways is in addition to the planned maintenance, and includes repairs on Devil’s Elbow, and SH2 slips while longer-term resilience work to build back stronger is considered.
There are a number of sites completed since we started in October, with all of the maintenance work on SH38 complete. There are a few recovery sites on SH38 to complete next year.
“We want you to get to your friends and whānau safely. When you’re out on the roads this summer, make safe choices to protect yourself and others. Drive to the speed limit, don’t drink and drive, make sure you’re rested, and plan ahead,” says Mr Taylor.
“Due to the level of activity across the network we highly recommend checking the NZTA Journey Planner before starting your journey.”
Journey Planner(external link)
TREC is an alliance set up to plan, organise, and deliver much of the recovery and rebuild work needed on the state highway and rail networks along the East Coast. It’s a partnership between NZTA, KiwiRail, Downer, Fulton Hogan, and Higgins.
