Big news for travellers in the lower North Island is Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway is scheduled to open to traffic during June – restoring an important connection for communities and businesses on both sides of the Tararua Ranges.

“The new highway between Ashhurst and Woodville will replace State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge, which was permanently closed in April 2017 due to landslides,” says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop.

The closure has meant the Saddle Rd has been the main route between Ashhurst and Woodville for eight years.

“Travel times will be greatly improved for both light and heavy vehicles using the new road. General traffic will take between 10-12 minutes to drive the road, which is a significant improvement on the current 20-25 minute detour route in place.”

The four-lane highway is 11.5km long and the Minister says the new road will be safer and more resilient than the road it’s replacing.

“The road will support productivity for businesses by improving travel times for freight and lowering vehicle operating costs,” he says.

“This corridor is an important freight link between Hawke’s Bay-Wairarapa and the Manawatū-Whanganui regions. Having an efficient, four-lane highway, divided by a median barrier through this transport corridor will boost economic growth for this part of the country and the rest of the North Island.”

“This highway will reconnect the communities severely affected by the closure of the old road. Woodville and Ashhurst have been impacted by the closure, and I would like to acknowledge their patience and their support for the project since its inception.”

There remains some work for the construction teams to complete before the road can open.

This includes laying the final stages of asphalt, installing barriers, line marking, and connecting the new road to the surrounding roading network. The expected cost to complete the project now stands at $824.1 million.

A key part of the project has been the 300-metre long and 30m wide Parahaki Bridge across the Manawatū River on the Woodville side of the highway. The bridge is a balanced cantilever design which involves constructing the bridge deck in segments, out from the three piers.

The concrete segments were poured in situ (in place), rather than being precast and then lifted into position, because the segments are too heavy to be lifted by crane.

Piling was complete by mid-2022 and by December that year the first pier was finished. Construction of the bridge deck began in September 2023 with the installation of the first form traveller, a pair of streel frames that support the concrete pours. It took the team 13 months to construct all 54 bridge deck segments.

The other recent news regarding the new highway was confirmation that it will not be tolled.

The Government says late consultation and timing constraints meant it would not be cost-effective to implement tolling until well after the road’s completion, placing it outside the Government’s expectations for new road tolling.