Napier-Taupō fatal crash spot fixed at Tarawera, now it awaits its traffic test

The improved highway and reserve entrance at the Tarawera Cafe, the State Highway 5 half-way stop between Napier and Taupo. Photo / Paul Taylor

Napier-Taupō highway cafe proprietor Jim Andrew doesn't expect business to improve any time soon, despite a safer off-road access.

He says the Tarawera Cafe, the former Tarawera Hotel, needs Auckland travellers – none of whom will be around while the City of Sails and its more than a third of New Zealand's population remain in Level 4 lockdown.

"There have been no vehicles on the road," he said, as the Covid Delta crisis entered its fourth week. "The lockdown in the Auckland region is a big hit. They love Hawke's Bay."

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that Auckland's lockdown will remain in place at least another seven days, but the rest of New Zealand will be relaxed marginally to a Level 2 Alert, which allows inter-regional travel, except in and out of Auckland.

The lockdown has, however, allowed national highways manager Waka Kotahi NZTA to start road safety improvements around the entrance to the cafe carpark and reserve, where a truck hit a turning van on the highway almost two years ago, killing one person and injuring 10 in the van.

The work was an early stage of what is ultimately expected to be a major spend on improvements to State Highway 5 between Taupo and the highway's intersection with SH2 north of Bay View.

Some of the future work was outlined in today's announcements by the NZTA.

Work started in mid June to improve the entrance to Tarawera Cafe.

An NZTA spokesperson said the entrance was being made into a single accessway, rather than separate in and out accessways, to prevent confusion.

It also moved the entrance to the south to provide better view of traffic in both directions on the highway.

Reshaping the road into the cafe to reduce the slope and widening the left turn slip lane for southbound traffic was also taking place, and electronic signs to warn vehicles turning in and out of the cafe were also being installed.

Andrew said that despite the traffic flow being light he has already had feedback from truck drivers noticing the improved entrance and exit, when some drivers would not have stopped in the past because of the risk.

"It is all green lights really," he said. "With spring coming on we've got to look towards things getting better."