Video: Construction of New Awatoto roundabout is ahead of schedule
Construction of the new Awatoto roundabout on State Highway 51 is about four to five weeks ahead of schedule despite some delays to the project.
This week’s planned night work at the new roundabout on State Highway 51 has been delayed a week.
Instead stop/go traffic management at night will be in place from Sunday 3 to Monday 11 March from 6pm to 5am, while contractors re-align the road to meet the new roundabout.
In addition, next week’s planned daytime closure of the Awatoto Road intersection with SH51 will now go ahead from 11 March to 20 March. The road will be open as per normal this week.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi Principal Project Manager Jacob Laird says softer than anticipated aggregate has been discovered in the area where the road will be realigned to meet the roundabout.
He says the delays are unfortunate but it’s important the work is done now to ensure that material is removed and replaced with much firmer soil to future proof the road.
Laird says the project remains ahead of schedule and involves the installation of a new roundabout, intersection improvements, installation of flexible wire rope barrier and side barrier along Marine Parade.
“We're about four to five weeks ahead of programme and we're tracking under budget. North and southbound traffic should be able to use the roundabout circa mid-March with all three legs of the roundabout being able to be used towards the end of March.”
He says that this section of the network has been for improvement because of its crash history.
“The organisation's always looking for ways to improve the safety and resilience of the network and this project's certainly providing that.”
“I think it's important to note that the project was programmed well before the cyclone and there's probably some concern around investment in this particular network when the rest of the network is in dire need of it as well.”
Laird told Hawke’s Bay App that it's important to note that there's a lot of work going on in the background on the recovery and rebuild.
“There's a lot of water's gone at the bridge there, but for now the focus is on improving this section of State Highway 51 with contractors that were available with the funding that we had available as well, and a commitment from Mana Whenua, Council, Kiwi Rail, and others within Waka Kotahi to just get this thing moving.”
He acknowledged that there had been some disruption, and “particularly this project starting so soon off the back of the cyclone”.
“I just really wanted to ensure that the funds that were committed to the region was spent here in the region and now that we are ahead of programme and under budget.”
“I'm glad we made that decision and just look forward to the community maximising the benefits.”
Regan Mador-Leahy, Construct Department Manager at Fulton Hogan, told Hawke’s Bay App that that the intersection on Awatoto Road had been “pretty bad”.
“I've seen many accidents with people getting cut off, so it's definitely going to improve that and make it a lot safer on this journey between Napier and Hastings.”
“The progress on the project's going really well, we're currently looking four weeks ahead of programme, so we've been able to move a few things around and change our methodology to speed up progress.”
“We've got about 25 to 30 people probably working here at any one time and machinery, engineers, and so we're running a 24/7 shift for this week and next week to be able to move traffic onto the roundabout faster and do less disruption to the traffic.”
Mador-Leahy said that prior to construction, they had looked at the traffic volume that used State Highway 51, and came up with “a couple ideas that caused less disruption and keep traffic flowing”.
“We moved a couple things around on the intersection, so we moved a slip lane that moved traffic into Awatoto Road and we did a bit of widening works and some ash routing so we could push two lanes over further away from the roundabout and that allowed us to put steel barriers on the project to completely separate traffic away from the construction works.”
The intersection will be closed between 8am and 4pm daily from Monday 11 March until Wednesday 20 March.
During this closure period, access will remain for north and southbound traffic on the state highway.
During the closure, crews will be constructing the extension of Awatoto Road, which will connect with the new roundabout, while also finishing asphalting.
Signposted detours, through Te Awa Avenue and Waitangi Road will be in place during the daytime closures, for all road users travelling between Napier, Hastings and Taradale. These detours will add approximately 5 minutes to people’s journeys.
