State Highway 1 over the Brynderwyn Hills will open in both directions for the first time since Cyclone Gabrielle hit last month.
Traffic management and a temporary speed limit will be in place so that northbound and southbound traffic can travel in both directions in time for Easter, which will see an increase in vehicles travelling to and from Northland, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says.
The road will then need to close in both directions from April 17 for two weeks to complete major earth works and drainage installation before the road permanently opens in May.
Maintenance and operations regional manager Jacqui Hori-Hoult says teams on the ground have been working extremely hard in tricky conditions to re-open the road so that local road detours aren’t impacted by high volumes of holiday traffic.
“The team has put in a huge amount of mahi to get the road open in both directions.
“We know however that we still have a lot of work to do to provide access as usual to Northland road-users.
“To date we have cleared approximately three Olympic sized swimming pools of material from the Brynderwyn Hills, but there is still the equivalent of another twenty to go.
“There are up to seven teams working through the site at any given time, clearing multiple over slips and cutting tracks to access the top of the major slip.
“At the major underslip they have installed 48 reinforcing bars and concreted so that the road can open this Friday,” Hori-Hoult says.
Teams will also be installing anchors in a retaining wall and configuring barriers ready for Friday.
