The SH1 Tīrau to Waiouru Accelerated Maintenance programme condensed four seasons of road maintenance into just two, improving some of the most travelled and in-need-of-repair sections of SH1 in Waikato. In total 128 lane kilometres is now rehabilitated or resealed.

“Prior to this project, something of this magnitude has never been attempted on our state highways, especially the block road closures of SH1 that were necessary to deliver intensive road rebuilding in the shortest possible time,” says Transport Minister Chris Bishop.

“The project’s completion on schedule is a testament to forward thinking and a huge amount of focused work, which benefits everyone, from our freight and tourism industries, to all those travelling, working and living in this region.

“The project was funded by the Government’s $2.07 billion State Highway Pothole Prevention fund and means 27% of the 220km corridor has been significantly upgraded, also accounting for future traffic growth.

“Many parts of this route required urgent attention and an alternative approach to patching up potholes and rebuilding short pieces of road,” says Mr Bishop.

“In designing this ambitious programme, all upcoming rebuilds and asphalt work planned for the 2024–2027 period and rebuild and structural asphalt sites planned for 2027–2030 were brought together and prioritised.”

The project has seen repairs to a total of 128.6 lane kms of the highway, including 56.8 lane kms of foam bitumen stabilising, on top of which 46.2 lane kms of thin asphalt concrete was installed.

There is also 26.6 lane kms of structural asphalt concrete and 45.2 lane kms of resurfacing, of which 40.7 lane kms is chipseal and 4.5 lane kms is a thin asphalt concrete layer.

During the programme 198,366 tonnes of aggregate and 106,560 tonnes of asphalt were used. Additionally, 10km of subsoil has been installed with 7kms of kerb and channel and 5km of barriers installed.

The work involved 35 contracting firms and accumulated 470,000 roadcrew hours with zero time lost due to injuries.