Flyover of the Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway. Video / Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
Heaven and earth is being moved - lots of earth - as a new lower North Island highway starts to take shape.
The Te Ahu a Turanga Manawatū-Tararua highway, a gateway between Manawatū and Tararua and Hawke's Bay, was being built to replace the Manawatū Gorge road, which was closed permanently because of slips in 2017.
After much planning and consultation, construction began in January last year, with the aim of completing the highway by December 2024.
A Waka Kotahi spokeswoman said the project was still on track for that date.
She said structures, earthworks and landscaping teams had continued to reach significant milestones in often challenging winter weather conditions.
About 3.7 million cubic metres of earth had been moved since the start of construction.
Drone footage of progress to date was released via social media last week.
Project engineer, Chrissy Reid, heard giving commentary on the September drone footage, said the project would be kicking off with drainage lines and earthworks this month.
The latest newsletter on the project stated that piling to set the foundation of the Parahaki Bridge, across the Manawatu River, was now complete.
The last pile on pier three was poured in mid-July.
Piling work continued on the Eco-Viaduct site across the river, with 12 of 16 piles completed last month.
Planning was also well under way for the start of construction of the Mangamanaia Bridge at the Woodville end of the alignment in summer.
Cut 13 has the most volume of earth in the project. Image / Waka Kotahi footage.
Reid said on the footage that Cut 13 was the largest of the project, with 2.2 million cubic metres of earth coming from it, with 599 left to go.
Zone Three had been challenging as it was in a gully at the top of a hill and had been "really wet" over winter.
"We've spent a lot of time this winter getting culverts in there and a few stream diversions, just to set us up to try to get some great progress done in the summer months," Reid said.
This area has geological material millions of years old. Image / Waka Kotahi footage.
Cut 28 was one of the cuts that could be seen from the Woodville end and was the deepest on the project.
It was 61 metres deep from top to subgrade of the road.
Reid also noted cool geology in the area with material called papa being more than 5.3 million years old.
Another rock called greywacke was over 113 million years old.
The video also notes that they've had to deal with fault lines with some materials being fractured.
Mangamanaia Bridge is an area of historical significance for iwi. Image / Waka Kotahi footage
Reid said the Mangamanaia Bridge was a historically significant area for the local iwi and they'd redesigned a solution that had a much lower impact on the environment.
"We intend to have the ground improvements completed by the end of the summer months."
A progress report in July stated that construction for the eastern roundabout was expected to begin in the next summer season with some enabling works commencing this year, such as the installation of culverts.
Work on the western roundabout was paused over winter and would resume in summer, including creating a road leading to the Western Access Gateway Park, the site of the new Te Apiti – Manawatu Gorge walking track.
Landscaping teams also reported good progress, reaching the 400,000 mark for plants in the ground in last month.
