SH38 Nature's Road

The Nature’s Road project will improve the safety and resilience of SH38/Special Purpose Road between Wairoa and Murupara for local communities, Ngāi Tūhoe, and visitors.

The project saw an environmentally sustainable material used to treat the road to respect and care for nature in Te Urewera. Safety improvements were also made to the route. 

In total, the project delivered:

• 2.807 kms of roadside safety barrier
• 18.5 kms of road was treated with Tall oil Pitch

A key component of the project was working in true partnership with Ngāi Tūhoe iwi, recognising that each party brought  valuable expertise, skills, values and ways of working.  

The project was completed in April 2025.

The three newly treated sites will be monitored for technical performance with a view to treating the entire Nature’s Road with Tall Oil Pitch in the future.

State Highway 38 / Special Purpose Road 38 forms a roading corridor of about 150km between Wairoa and Murupara. Around 70km of this road is unsealed.

Much of the unsealed road is within the mountainous Te Urewera, which is the homeland of the Ngāi Tūhoe people and recognised as a legal entity in her own right. 

The gravel road has significant negative impacts, for local communities and travellers. These range from the health and environmental effects of dust, safety issues, to the vulnerability of the route during and after severe weather events, which can isolate the remote communities. Sealing the road will improve health, social and economic outcomes for local communities and the surrounding region.   

Under the vision of Nature’s Road, since 2016, Ngāi Tūhoe invested in developing a Tall Oil Pitch (TOP) sealing material as an environmentally sustainable, low impact alternative to petroleum-based bitumen, to improve Te Urewera roading while preserving the natural environment.

Following the successful trial of the product on small sections of the road conducted by Tūhoe and WSP Opus Research in 2018, a project to seal three sites was undertaken.

The three newly treated sites will be monitored for technical performance with a view to treating the entire Nature’s Road with Tall Oil Pitch in the future.

The governing purposes of Te Urewera Act are to strengthen the connection of Ngāi Tūhoe with Te Urewera, to protect its environment and biodiversity, and to provide for public access to Te Urewera. Nature’s Road seeks to support these purposes by improving accessibility, safety and connectedness for Ngāi Tūhoe and manuhiri (visitors), while reducing potential environmental impacts.