People travelling through the Tāngarākau Gorge on State Highway 43 should plan for possible delays of up to 45 minutes from Monday 22 July to Friday 26 July.

Crews working on SH43 / Forgotten World Highway will be installing and repairing 7 culverts in the unsealed section of the road. 

The focus will then shift to sealing the final 5 kilometres through the Tāngarākau Gorge in the summer. 

Culverts are pipes that are installed under the road to carry water from the gutters. This work is crucial to the project and can’t be done with traffic on the road.

During the 5 days of work, the road will be closed for up to 45 minutes between 7am and 5pm . Outside these hours, the road will be open. 

A total of 7km of road through the gorge has now been sealed. Three retaining walls have also been built to improve the resilience of the road.

The 5 days of closures will allow the contractors to bring in extra crews and build all the culverts at once, during a period when traffic volumes are lower.

After this work is done, the road will be open with no delays for a fortnight, before winter work resumes on 12 August, under stop/go traffic management, with minimal delays.

Once the weather warms up, NZTA will seal the final 5km section of unsealed road. The project is expected to be completed in full by the end of the year.

The gorge project will ultimately see the unsealed 12-kilometre section of the Forgotten World Highway chip-sealed, making the road safer and more accessible for locals and visitors wanting to experience the iconic back country journey.