New surface on way at 'high stress' intersection | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

One of the region's busiest open road intersections, which links State Highway 2 and SH5 at Eskdale, is undergoing major surface reconstruction.

New Zealand Transport Agency acting regional state highways manager Gordon Hart said the intersection was a "high-stress" area as it involved vehicles, including many heavy vehicles, making tight turns from SH5 left to Whirinaki and right towards Napier.

Mr Hart said that several years ago the agency had laid a trial strip of special macadam roading material which had a reputation for being hard-wearing in such high-stress spots. "It has worked. The whole area there will now be laid in that," he said.

Work got under way last Sunday and is expected to take two weeks, with road crews avoiding heavy traffic flows by carrying out the work at night.

About 300m of road surface has been peeled off to be replaced. A specialised surface-stripping machine was in use for the first three days, taking off the top 15cm and delivering it via a conveyor belt system into a truck moving ahead of it.

A similar night-time surface maintenance programme had also been carried out recently at the Devil's Elbow on SH2.

Warning signs and speed restrictions have been put in place. The agency had also carried out a safety programme along stretches of SH5 just west of Eskdale by applying more stretches with double yellow no-passing lines.

The stretches had been identified as areas where there had been "behavioural issues" from motorists using them.