Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is urging people to avoid non-essential travel in several North Island regions, with Metservice red or orange warnings for heavy rain in place for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel, and parts of Bay of Plenty and Gisborne.
If you can avoid travel, please stay home. If you’re driving in the forecast heavy rainfall, please drive to the conditions, which means keeping a safe following distance and dropping your speed and watch for flooding and other debris on the road.
There has been significant progress clearing slips around the Coromandel and wider Waikato with most highways now open but extreme caution is advised as there may be small slips and areas with surface water. Clearance and cleanup works will continue tomorrow in the region.
Waka Kotahi roading contractors will be closely monitoring the State Highway network as further heavy rain is forecast to spread down the North Island.
The toll on the Northern Gateway will be paused from 5pm Monday 30 January until 10pm Sunday 5 February (or until the state of emergency in Auckland is lifted).
Inspections at the summit of State Highway 25A (SH25A) show the remainder of the road has collapsed into the gully, as a result of heavy rain which continues to fall in the Coromandel region.
It’s not just the upper North Island in the firing line from bad weather. Drivers in the Lower North Island and upper South Island also need to be prepared.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has been undertaking geotechnical assessments in a number of areas where there have been slips onto the road and underneath the road.