KEY POINTS:
Work on sealing the last dusty, metalled section of SH1 between Waitiki Landing and Cape Reinga will start in mid-August.
The remote 19km section of highway, originally formed from a farm track about 50 years ago, has 100 bends.
It carries more than 120,000 visitors a year - sometimes 400 a day - to and from the northern tip of New Zealand.
Highway authority Transit New Zealand and contractor United Civil Construction expect the $14.5 million sealing project to take at least three years, depending on weather and other conditions.
The cost includes sealing and parking improvements in the Department of Conservation-managed car park, and maintenance of the entire road.
Work also includes significant safety and landscaping improvements along the highway, more signage and new rest areas.
Construction will start next month at the Cape Reinga end of the road with sealing of the car park.
The project will finish just north of Waitiki Landing at the intersection of the highway and Te Hapua Road.
Transit says it is working with DoC and local iwi Ngati Kuri to manage replanting of native seedlings on the road's margins.
It says systems have been developed to protect land, streams and waterways during sealing work and then to restore sites after work has finished.
