The Ōtaki to north of Levin update – April 2024 from Waka Kotahi advises us about delays between Waikawa Beach Road and Ōhau from 8pm on Sunday 05 May to 5am on Thursday 09 May 2024:
Plan ahead for stop/go traffic management at the Manakau Rail Overbridge from Sunday 5 May
The Ōtaki to Ohau safety improvement project is now nearing completion, with all three turnaround facilities open and all side and median barriers installed. We have also made the Waikawa Beach Road/ State Highway 1 (SH1) intersection safer and installed a right turn bay into Atkins Road.
Work is now progressing south of the Manakau Rail Overbridge, where construction crews have installed painted hatched median south of the Whakahoro Road intersection and widened the highway in this area.
We will soon begin works to install a right turn bay into Whakahoro Road. These infrastructure improvements will support vehicles turning right into and out of Whakahoro Road and driveways on the highway. This will be the final significant piece of work for this project.
Stop/go at Manakau Rail Overbridge
There will be 24/7 stop/ go temporary traffic management with a 30km/h speed limit in place at the Manakau Rail Overbridge from 8pm on Sunday 5 May– 5am on Thursday 9 May to complete these safety improvements.
There will be significant delays during peak travel times. These delays are expected to be up to 20 minutes. Where possible, we ask those who travel through this area to plan your journey with these works in mind.
While there will be delays and we appreciate this can be frustrating, without this stop/go traffic management, this work would take a lot longer, delaying the completion of the overall safety improvement project and causing longer disruptions to the highway.
We looked at other options to get this piece of work completed, however, to complete this work overnight would result in approximately two months of traffic disruptions and delays. In this case, short term stop/ go traffic management over this period is more efficient and less disruptive for road users.
Thank you for your patience with other road users and the construction crews working to make this section of State Highway 1 safer.
