Over the next few months, large, oversized loads transporting wind turbine components will be travelling on the state highway network overnight from Northport to the Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm site. They will be travelling in convoys Sunday to Thursday nights to reduce impacts on traffic. To avoid morning peak congestion, trucks will return to Northport along the same route after 9.30am.

The loads include tower sections, blades, and other parts which require specialised transport vehicles, pilot vehicles, and coordinated traffic management along the route.

Route: The oversized loads will travel from Northport, onto State Highway 15 (SH15), then State Highway 1 (SH1) through Whangārei, before continuing west on State Highway 14 (SH14) to Dargaville, and north on State Highway 12 (SH12) to the Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm site.

There has been a lot of behind the scenes planning between Mercury NZ, our NZTA Maintenance and Operations, bridge engineers, the NZ Police Commercial Vehicle Safety, and specialist transport load pilot crews to ensure these convoys run as smoothy and safety as possible.

What road users can expect

Travellers at night may experience intermittent delays as the convoys move through. Oversized loads may need to travel slowly, use more road space than normal, or manoeuvre through intersections at reduced speed. Pilot vehicles and traffic management crews will be in place to help road users share the road safely.

If you are travelling at night, please:

• Allow extra time for your journey
• Look out for pilot vehicles and the OVERSIZE sign
• Slow down and follow instructions from pilot and traffic management staff
• Be prepared to stop if directed – extremely large loads may temporarily block the road
• Only overtake when signalled it is safe to do so

For general information on how oversized loads operate on New Zealand roads, the NZ Heavy Haulage Association provides helpful videos: https://www.youtube.com/@NZHeavyHaulageAssociation

NZTA thanks road users and local communities for their patience and cooperation and for helping keep everyone safe around oversized vehicles.

Plan for a safe, enjoyable journey. Keep up to date with:

• Traffic updates
• Facebook - Auckland
• Facebook - Northland
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• Journey Planner
• Phone: 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49)

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