A stretch of State Highway 2 (SH2) Hawke’s Bay Expressway will be closed overnight from the end of the month in preparation for construction activity.

The road between the Taradale Road roundabout and Kennedy Road offramp, will be closed between 8pm and 5am, for 5 nights from Sunday 30 November. The work will be finished by 5am Friday 5 December.

During these overnight closures, crews will be preparing this section of SH2 to support construction of the Roads of National Significance project.

The work involves building a temporary road off the highway to a project site facility, changing line marking and installing temporary road safety barriers to facilitate the construction of new additional lanes.

A full closure is required to allow sufficient room to access all areas of the carriageway in one go, ensuring the work is completed quickly to avoid ongoing disruption.

During the closure, a detour will be in place for light vehicles:

• Southbound traffic will exit right from the Taradale Road roundabout, travelling along Taradale Road before exiting left onto Kennedy Road. Southbound traffic can then re-enter the expressway by turning right onto the Kennedy Road onramp.
• Northbound traffic will exit the expressway onto the Kennedy Road offramp, turning left onto Kennedy Road and right onto Taradale Road before re-entering the expressway at the Taradale Road roundabout.

Emergency vehicles will be allowed through the site.

More information will provided next week for HPMV and over-dimensional loads.

A temporary speed restriction will be in place during the day when the road is opened and will remain in place following the completion of this overnight work. At this stage it will extend from the Taradale Road roundabout to Kennedy Road offramp. This area is expected to be extended in future, and we will communicate further changes once finalised.

Signage will be in place indicating the new road layout. If you’re travelling through, please be aware of changes to the road layout and take extra care, drive to the conditions, the temporary speed limit and be aware of other vehicles in the area.

As this project work kicks off next Sunday night, the previously advertised(external link) one night of unrelated routine maintenance on 30 November now won’t go ahead.

Pavement testing

Ahead of these overnight closures, stop/go traffic management will be in place for 6 nights, from Monday (24 November). Crews will be testing the road surface south of the Links Road/Pākōwhai Road.

The traffic management will be in place each night between 8pm and 5am. Please expect delays of up to 10 minutes.