The East Taupo Arterial (ETA) road has been handed over from Taupo District Council to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), to officially become a part of State Highway 1.
In return, the old state highway through central Taupo has been handed over to the council by NZTA, becoming a local road.
The idea of building a road to bypass Taupo stretches back 60 years, with the project to build the ETA getting official approval in 2003. Construction began in early 2009 and the ETA was opened to traffic in October 2010.
The council built and maintained the ETA, with NZTA paying a 76.5% subsidy toward the final cost of construction of $110 million.
“The official handover of the 16-kilometre stretch of highway to the Transport Agency marks the end to one of the largest infrastructure projects this district has seen,” says Taupo district mayor David Trewavas.
“Building the ETA was a great benefit to the Taupo community by taking a huge volume of traffic, in particular the heavy trucks, away from the centre of town,” he says.
