Busy construction season coming up

Here comes the sun and with it comes a flurry of activity on our roads.

It’s construction season, so any of our Council activity that involves building stuff ramps up to take advantage of good weather.

Roads are close to the hearts of all New Zealanders and council across the country are under pressure to deliver better and more resilient roads, all with a limited budget.

With all the work we need to do on our roads comes disruption to our movements throughout the district, whether we’re going to work, going to school or popping down to the shops.

You would have noticed it’s started already.

Roadworks are frustrating but they are a sure sign that we and our roading partners are out there fixing and maintaining our roads - vital for our connectivity as communities and critical infrastructure for economic prosperity.

We are also focused on delivering new capital projects as well as maximising the weather in the ‘construction season’ to work on our roading network priorities.

The impact of growth and more, larger and heavier vehicles are outcomes of the incessant growth our district is experiencing that affects our network and often your personal travel on our roads.

We understand that people lead busy lives and a two-minute delay as we go about our business tests our patience.

But our roading and construction workers are our neighbours and live within our communities too.

Unfortunately, there are a few who take out their frustrations on frontline workers who are either managing traffic or doing the mahi.

Please give them a friendly wave or smile as you drive by, and pass the word of kindness to these people working in the heat of summer on our behalf, as we want them to arrive home to their loved ones safe and supported.

They’re simply doing their jobs to the best of their ability.

And it is going to be a busy constructions season – there’s lots to do.

Here’s a few examples of what’s coming up:

• Pookeno will be a major area of activity – roading improvements have been a long time coming for those residents but teams will be in from November doing a town centre upgrade, intersection work. Traffic disruptions will be going on for months, but the result will be worth the frustration.
• Work in the Horsham Downs area with the River Road/Lake Road roundabout project
• Work in the Horotiu area with a closure of Horotiu Road at the rail crossing and linking to a new road to exit at the Great South Road/Horotiu Bridge Road.
• There’s a major project planned to replace the Harrisville Road bridge in Tuakau which will involve construction of a temporary alternative while work is going on.

For more details on all the projects we’ve got going on see our Projects Directory page.

These examples of capital projects are over and above all our roading partners’ maintenance and resurfacing work going on throughout the district, which involves traffic management.

There’s also the added factor of our friends at Waka Kotahi, who look after state highways, having a busy construction season too.

You only have to look at delays on SH1 just north of Hamilton and SH1 at Rangiriri due to the expressway work needed.

It does add to frustration, but we can’t plan around Waka Kotahi works as we have so much to do - unfortunately a double whammy is unavoidable.

To keep up to date with major roadworks going on in our district see our Current roadworks page.

All this boils down to me saying, please bear with us this summer folks while we do as much work as we can while the sun allows us to.

While on this subject, there’s a long weekend coming up.

Roads will be busy – please drive safe, please be patient and enjoy the mini break!