1996 National Roading Programme: Waikato/BOP NRP news

The Waikato/Bay of Plenty regional spending for the 1996 National Roading Programme had the following main statistics:

• $99.47m for Waikato. State Highway maintenance and construction spending was the main output class, with 50% of spending. 
• $44.44m for the Bay of Plenty. State Highway maintenance and construction spending was the main output class, with 51% of spending.

Main increases for state highway spending were for additional reseals, additional pavement rehabilitation and additional road markings.

Safety projects of note were:

• Hamilton City arterial street lighting upgrade
• Rotokauri Street safety improvements, Hamilton City
• SH2 Sargents Corner realignment 
• SH27 Maukoro Landing Road intersection upgrade
• SH5 Tarukenga Curves Stage 2 realignment
• SH5 Tumunui South realignment
• 32.3km of seal extension throughout both regions

No new state highway construction projects were approved because of the high value of committed works, and all but two local road construction projects were seal extension projects. The seal extension projects were in Otorohonga District, Waitomo District, Opotiki District, Western Bay of Plenty District and Whakatane District.

Committed major projects included:

• SH1 Pokeno Bypass (extension of Waikato Expressway)
• SH1 Mangatawhiri Bridge realignment (part of Waikato Expressway)
• Hamilton City Pukete Arterial Stage 1
• SH2 Church-Timber Mill
• SH25 Kuaotunu Hill seal extension
• SH25 Coromandel-Whangapoua seal extension
• SH5 Earthquake Flats realignment

Transfund NRP news Hamilton Office 1996 p1

Transfund NRP news Hamilton Office 1996 p2

Transfund NRP news Hamilton Office 1996 p3

Transfund NRP news Hamilton Office 1996 p4

Transfund NRP news Hamilton Office 1996 p5

Transfund NRP news Hamilton Office 1996 p6

Pukete Bridge opens

 

This page taken from one of the last issues of Works Consultancy's Momentum magazine reports on the design and opening of the Pukete Bridge in Hamilton City.  The bridge was opened to service the sprawling suburbs of Pukete, Chartwell and Flagstaff north of Hamilton, connecting to the R1 Arterial Road link, which itself linked Te Rapa, State Highway 1 (as it was then), across to a new north-south arterial to the east of Hamilton terminating at SH1 to the south of the city (now all bypassed by the Waikato Expressway).

The project included 1.5km of arterial road, a 150m bridge and related works.  The route was designed to support future four-laning along the whole route (the section from Resolution Drive to Te Rapa Road is now four-laned).  The project also included a 3m wide shared pedestrian/cycleway along the entire route physically separated from the arterial road. 

Works Consultancy at the date of this report was being sold to Kinta Kellas Plc as privatisation of the company. It was noted that the Works brand was bought by Downers for Works Civil Construction. 

Momentum - Works Consultancy client magazine January/February 1996

The document muncher

As you can see the below magazine I was planning to scan has signs of teeth, in that the miniature dachshund above has chewed at it.  It's my fault for leaving it on the ground of course! So apologies if all the content is not clear!

Claudelands Bridge

Wellington Inner City Bypass

Wellington Inner City Bypass

Whangamoa Saddle

In 1996 the former Ministry of Works had been corporatised some years beforehand into an entity commonly called WorksCorp, but was officially the Works and Development Services Corporation.  This edition of its magazine I have selectively scanned for the articles on roads, but the first page (which was the last) also refers to its imminent privatisation.  It was sold as a going concern that year and became part of Opus Group. 

The articles in this edition include:

• Strengthening of the Claudelands Bridge in Hamilton City (which was originally the railway bridge for the East Coast Main Trunk Railway)
• Planning for the Stage 2 of the Wellington Inner City Bypass (later known as Karo Drive)
• Construction of the Whangamoa deviation on SH6 in Marlborough

National Land Transport Programme 1996 - Waikato/Bay of Plenty regional office newsletter

 

Connections Newsletter August 1995

NLTP 1996 Waikato/BOP maintenance and safety improvements

NLTP 1996 - Waikato/BOP Bridge renewals, new construction, investigation and design projects

NLTP 1996 - Waikato/BOP investigation/design projects and commitments, with overall summary

The Hamilton regional office of Transit New Zealand covered both Waikato and the Bay of Plenty . This newsletter highlighted spending in both regions for the 1996 NLTP.  $96.9m was allocated for Waikato and $32.4m for the Bay of Plenty, with higher funding for any region outside Auckland.

In both regions state highway funding predominated, although local road funding was around two-thirds that for state highways.  A significant proportion of funding was for previously committed projects to the extent that no new state highway construction projects were approved (except safety improvement projects).

Notable was an explanation about the increase in seal extension funding (seen all across the country):

"Approximately 20 kilometres of road will be sealed in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty during 1995/96. This is a dramatic increase over the 4 kilometres of seal extensions completed in 1994/95 and is largely a result of TNZ's new evaluation procedures now placing a value on the" comfort factor that users assign to travelling on scaled roads"

Notable projects included:

• Earthquake Flat realignment SH5 Rotorua
• Pokeno Bypass SH1 (commitment)
• Pukete Arterial, Hamilton City (commitment) 
• Mangaiti Hill Realignment, SH1 South Waikato (commitment)
• SH25 seal completion (commitment)
• Mangatawhiri Bridge realignment SH1 (commitment)
• Tamahere Interchange SH1 (commitment)

Also noted is extensive funding for investigation and design work on projects such as SH38 seal extension, Katikati Bypass SH2 (which has not proceeded) and four laning of state highways in Rotorua.  Indicative is an extensive commitment to funding small scale safety projects across local and state highway networks.