NPDC has kicked-off a multi-million-dollar project to upgrade a key rural road.

When it is finished, about 5 kilometres of Tarata Road between Inglewood and the Purangi Saddle will have been rebuilt, with the work concentrating on high-risk areas.

“Tarata Road is a significant regional and economic road but it’s under a lot of pressure from an increasing volume of logging trucks – it wasn’t built to withstand this type of traffic and it’s deteriorating pretty quickly,” says NPDC General Manager Operational Excellence Sarah Downs.

“What we’re essentially doing is reforming a lot of the road. There’ll be a mix of road widening, realignment, drainage works, tree removals and rebuilding the road layers.

“The outcome will be a stronger, more resilient road that’s better able to withstand not just the heavy traffic but also the effects of storms and flooding, which will improve user safety and reduce maintenance costs.”

Six sites have been identified for improvement. The first site is a 1.4km section that will be finished by Christmas, weather allowing, with the work shifting to other sites in the New Year.

Sarah says packaging up a variety of work along Tarata Road into a single two-year project is in response to community wishes for improvements to be completed sooner, especially given the damage from heavy traffic only getting worse.

So far, $7.4 million has been approved for the project, comprising $5.6m split equally between NPDC’s Junction Road Endowment Fund and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s resilience fund, and $1.8m from NPDC’s 2025/26 Annual Plan.

A further $1.8m has been requested as part of next year’s Annual Plan.

A small ceremony was held on the site yesterday, attended by local residents, New Plymouth District Mayor-elect Max Brough and John Woodward, who was provisionally elected as one of five councillors at large at the weekend.

Fast facts:

• The Tarata Road Endowment Fund (formerly the Junction Road Endowment Fund) was created after NPDC sold the freehold interests in 24 leasehold land farm properties on Junction Road (now Tarata Road), with the intention of using the fund for maintenance and improvement works on the road as well as other roads in the former Taranaki and Inglewood counties (excluding Inglewood itself).
• NPDC looks after more than 1,300km of roads in our urban and rural areas.

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