Improved safety features including flexible median and roadside safety barriers are being installed along the 15km East Taupō Arterial road. These changes will help to reduce the number of death and serious injury crashes along this route.
The Government Policy Statement on land transport 2024 (GPS 2024) has changed how we, NZTA, invests in safety across the state highway network. Safety remains a priority objective in GPS 2024, with safety embedded across all investments.
Our focus is on delivering safe roading infrastructure via the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) and Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), providing enhanced maintenance and highway resilience as well as increased support for NZ Police enforcement.
This means several state highway safety improvement projects around Taupō have been reprioritised.
SH1 East Taupō Arterial safety improvements update - Work was completed in August 2024 on the second of 3 sections. The detailed design is completed on the third section however there is no allocated funding for construction in the 2024-27 NLTP.
The safety upgrade of the SH1- East Taupō Arterial – which bypasses Taupō – was announced in August 2017 and is being completed in three stages.
In the 10 years between 2014-2023, six people were killed and four people were seriously injured on this stretch of state highway This upgrade will mean the road is more forgiving and crashes are less likely to result in deaths and serious injuries.
Each crash has huge impacts on the people involved, their families, emergency services and the health sector. As well as saving lives and preventing crash trauma, safety upgrades like these will result in fewer crashes which would mean the highway is more efficient and can support productivity and economic growth in the region.
The first stage between SH5-Napier Road and Centennial Drive began in March 2020, completed in 2022.
Stage 2, from Centennial Drive to SH5-Wairakei, requires some remedial works before the barriers can be fitted and this work is not funded.
Stage 3, a 5km section from SH5-Napier Road south to the airport roundabout, started in January 2024 and was completed in August 2024. The latest improvement, which cost $6.6 million, required road widening to make room for the central barriers. Some side barriers and earth bunds were added to separate highway traffic from the shared path which runs alongside the highway.
|
Stage number |
Location |
Fatal crashes |
Serious |
Minor injury |
Non-injury |
Total overall crashes |
|
Stage 1 |
SH5 Napier Road to Centennial Drive Interchange |
5 |
2 |
7 |
16 |
30 |
|
Stage 2 |
Centennial Drive Interchange to SH5 Wairakei |
1 |
2 |
9 |
25 |
37 |
|
Stage 3 |
SH5 Napier Road to Taupō Airport roundabout |
0 |
0 |
7 |
17 |
24 |
|
Total |
|
6 |
4 |
23 |
58 |
91 |
Safety barriers were installed on the southern 5km section of East Taupō Arterial in 2024.
