A narrow gravel back road in south Waikato has been closed to non-residents after unsuitable vehicles and trucks used it as a detour during the closure of State Highway 3 through the Awakino Gorge, with road workers also abused by drivers.<\/p>\n
Waitomo District Council closed Taumatamaire Road at NZ Transport Agency’s request, saying the single-lane, winding road was never built to handle the volume and weight of traffic normally carried by SH3. NZTA contractors were also being abused by drivers.<\/p>\n
“Respect goes a long way. Please respect our road workers and respect the road closures,” the council said.<\/p>\n
An NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) spokesperson said crews on SH3 had experienced antisocial behaviour from road users, and asked drivers to remember who was doing the work. <\/p>\n
“Please be patient and respectful towards our crews, who are members of your community, simply doing their job: working to improve our roads for the community,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
NZTA said SH1 and SH4 remained the best alternative routes for freight while SH3 is closed, with SH43 not designated as a detour because of its alignment and isolation.<\/p>\n
Taumatamaire Road will reopen to non-residents once NZTA’s work is finished.<\/p>\n
Crews have made “excellent progress” at the major slip site, with all four culverts now installed.<\/p>\n
If conditions are dry enough for asphalting, SH3 through the Awakino Gorge is expected to reopen from 6pm tomorrow under the same one-lane, stop\/go traffic management used before the closure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A narrow gravel back road in south Waikato has been closed to non-residents after unsuitable vehicles and trucks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9001,111,43,139,69,112],"class_list":["post-585772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-hamilton-waikato","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585772","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=585772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}