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Video / NZ Herald / Mark Mitchell / Getty
Parts of the two main highways between Napier and Hastings will have closures, lower speed limits and stop-go traffic management for much of the rest of February.
Government state highways management agency NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) says 10 days of 6pm-5am traffic-lights management will start on seafront route State Highway 51 on Sunday to enable roundabout and realignment completion at and near the intersection with Awatoto Road.
It will be followed by a similar period of 8am-4pm closures of the intersection, with detours for Awatoto Rd traffic on Te Awa Avenue and Waitangi Rd, while northbound and southbound traffic on SH51 will be able to use the roundabout from the end of February.
During the closure, crews will be constructing the extension of Awatoto Rd to connect with the new roundabout, while also finishing asphalting and landscaping the area between the realignment and the railway line with native plants.
An aerial view of the new State Highway 51 roundabout and realignment at Awatoto. Photo / NZTA
Meanwhile, Monday sees the start of six nights of 8pm-5am closures of the Hawke’s Bay Expressway between Pakowhai and Omahu roads, almost the full length between Napier and Hastings, for maintenance. Traffic will detour on the pre-expressway route of Pakowhai and Maraekakaho roads through Hastings, and on Omahu Rd.
NZTA principal project manager Jacob Laird said the roundabout and realignment safety work on SH51 is being done as efficiently as possible to minimise the delays and disruption.
It’s part of a $20 million project on a Napier-Hastings sector of road, including a stretch identified as one of the most accident-prone per kilometre in Hawke’s Bay, and possibly New Zealand.
There were five fatalities in the 3km between Awatoto Rd and Ellison Rd, Napier, in the three years to August 2021, but there’s also a long history of crashes dating back several decades.
The expressway work, with no closure on the Saturday night of February 24 but with a last-night closure 24 hours later, will include asphalting the roundabout and approach roads at the Evenden Rd intersection, resealing of the section between Evenden and Omahu roads, and general maintenance and line marking.
The work, on two highways which were closed for several days a year ago after Cyclone Gabrielle, comes at the height of the nationwide road construction and maintenance season, with mainly fine weather forecast for the Napier-Hastings area through to at least the end of next week.
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
