{"id":451301,"date":"2026-05-29T15:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/451301\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T15:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:24:14","slug":"waikare-gorge-highway-realignment-takes-next-steps-destination-2030","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/451301\/","title":{"rendered":"Waikare Gorge highway realignment takes next steps \u2013 destination 2030"},"content":{"rendered":"

The contract includes $32m for the design component, with construction costs to be confirmed.<\/p>\n

Napier MP Katie Nimon, whose electorate includes Wairoa, said she had been advocating for the realignment since before she entered Parliament in late 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to see our Government\u2019s progress on this vital link between Napier and Wairoa,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestment in resilience is \u2018make or break\u2019 for our region, and this new section of road will support the economic growth of Wairoa and Gisborne, and improve access to public services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop said construction is expected to take up to four years to complete.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a timeline that, without unexpected disruptions, could result in the realignment being completed by the end of 2030, with the current temporary bridge in place till the new road is opened<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Traffic disruption will be kept to a minimum, as most of the work will be away from the existing road.<\/p>\n

The project has been on council and transport committee radars for more than 20 years, but became particularly urgent after Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed the gorge bridge just north of P\u016bt\u014drino in February 2023.<\/p>\n

It closed the Napier-Wairoa road for three months before a temporary bridge was in place.<\/p>\n

Bishop said the realignment project is being contracted and delivered in two phases, with the detailed design phase the first part to get underway.<\/p>\n

He said landowners and the community may have started to see some activity on site as HEB carries out geotechnical investigations to inform the final detailed design of the project, while at the same time government agency NZTA is finalising property acquisition.<\/p>\n

Bishop said: \u201cWe know how critical this section of SH2 is for local road users, freight operators and the wider communities who use this corridor every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen in recent years how vulnerable this section of SH2 is, especially through Waikare Gorge. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe State Highway 2 Waikare River bridge just north of P\u016bt\u014drino soon after being destroyed in Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cCyclone Gabrielle hit the area hard, and while a temporary bridge was installed to restore access across the river, it is great to see progress being made on a permanent replacement for this critical corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The realignment took its first big steps forward in the wake of the Tair\u0101whiti Programme Business Case approval in September 2017, identifying the gorge as a key \u201cpinch point\u201d on SH2 between Napier and \u014cp\u014dtiki.<\/p>\n

Consultation with the P\u016bt\u014drino community started in 2019, and consenting processes started with applications lodged in May 2023<\/a> were publicly notified in early 2024.<\/p>\n

Doug Laing is a Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with more than 50 years in journalism, including 39 years consecutively based in Napier covering issues and events in Hawke\u2019s Bay, including Waikare Gorge realignment issues dating back more than 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The contract includes $32m for the design component, with construction costs to be confirmed. Napier MP Katie Nimon,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42790,198171,5432,1568,1566,501,34521,5904,229691,19134,229690,121901,5838,26755,12898,3607,111,43,139,1536,69,91738,229689,4497,13672,21694,3057,19554,1120,229688,15289,102],"class_list":["post-451301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-42790","tag-awarding","tag-between","tag-construction","tag-contract","tag-design","tag-destination","tag-final","tag-formulate","tag-forward","tag-geotechnical","tag-gorge","tag-help","tag-highway","tag-investigation","tag-napier","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-onsite","tag-realignment","tag-start","tag-state","tag-step","tag-steps","tag-taken","tag-takes","tag-waikare","tag-wairoa","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}