Work continues at multiple locations on the busy State Highway 2 corridor between Waihī and Tauranga next week.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency Bay of Plenty System Manager, Roger Brady, says the busy maintenance season often raises questions from the community about resealing works.
This is one of the key activities taking place this summer at various sites along SH2. Resealing happens overnight to lessen the impact on motorists, but temporary speed limits remain in place while new seal beds in.
“We are sometimes asked why we don’t use machinery to roll over the new seal instead of passing cars embedding the gravel,” says Mr Brady.
“Pneumatic tyre rollers are one of a variety of a rollers that we use and are designed to imitate car tyres. If we ran a number of these rollers repeatedly over the chip seal sites during the night, this would be the same as a few hundred cars driving over the seal.
“However, the degree of rolling required on the chip seal sites requires the action of several thousand cars.
“The chip is then left in place without sweeping whilst the bitumen binder cures and achieves maximum adhesion. If we sweep too much, too early, the bitumen will not bind to the chip adequately, and the sweeping equipment will pull up the stones,” says Mr Brady.
“Speeding vehicles can flick up loose metal and other objects, which can be dangerous to our road workers and other road users. This can also cause damage to other vehicles, which is why we put temporary speed limits in place following the works and advise road users to follow the direction of our traffic controllers and keep to the posted speed limits.
“We do our best to communicate these works as widely as possible through traffic bulletins, a regular e-newsletter and local media. We also encourage people to check with Journey Planner before travelling.”
Journey Planner(external link)
“While we do our best to adhere to timeframes on all our works, due to weather changes and other external influences, this is not always possible. Due to the current materials supply issues related to COVID-19, our crews are often required to move between project sites at short notice to do what they can,” says Mr Brady.
This is what you can expect to see on your journey between Waihī and Tauranga this week:
Night resealing works:
These are night works, scheduled between 7pm-5am. Stop/Go traffic management will be in place with a 30km/hr temporary speed limit. Expect delays of 45 minutes for 36 to 48 hours following the work.
Takitimu North Link
People will see an increase of activity between Cambridge Road and Wairoa Valley as enabling works get underway and investigations continue for Takitimu North Link Stage One. The site crew will be highly visible over coming weeks. Key activities that will have an impact on traffic next week are:
Waka Kotahi advises motorists to check the Journey Planner website for up-to-date information on traffic, delays, road works, closures and detours before they travel.
Journey Planner(external link)
“We know these works are inconvenient to motorists and we endeavour to keep people informed and to minimise any delays as much as possible,” says Mr Brady.
Plan ahead for a safe, enjoyable journey. Keep up to date with:
