Council is asking Taumarunui residents and business owners for their patience and understanding as a series of major projects are underway along Hakiaha St over the next few years including township revitalisation and planned upgrades of assets such as water and wastewater mains, power and telecommunications.

Chief Executive Clive Manley said that with multiple stages of construction over a protracted period all the organisations involved want to minimise disruption and costs as much as possible.

“To help with this Council has put together a project group consisting of our Asset Managers in roading, water and property with the other key contractors including Chorus, GHD, Veoila, the NZ Transport Agency and The Lines Company,” said Mr Manley.

“Our objective is to ensure as much coordination as possible with other infrastructure providers who will be undertaking works.

Council and the other organisations involved apologise in advance for any inconvenience that may be caused but it is a necessary if we are going to have the vibrant, attractive town with upgraded services that we all want.

In addition to the township revitalisation projects Council wants to use the opportunity to upgrade our water assets notably the 375mm water main along Hakiaha St which has been suffering from repeated outages which are now occurring on average every two months.

Around October next year Chorus is scheduled to start the much anticipated implementation of fibre in Taumarunui which may take up to a year and will require road and footpath works.

Mr Manley noted that with Hakiaha St also being part of SH4 its maintenance and reinstatement falls under the responsibility of the NZ Transport Agency.

“To help minimise costs over the multiple stages of construction Transit will be applying chip seal as a temporary road surface which can be dug up as needed until all works have been completed.

At the end of the construction period the NZ Transport Agency is planning to apply a final asphalt surface from the roundabout at the northern entrance through to the Memorial Hall area.

In addition to maintaining and reinstating the roadway the NZ Transport Agency is also looking to upgrade the street lighting along Hakiaha St to more efficient LED lighting from the current sodium lamps.

While Council and the other organisations will provide regular updates over the extended construction period anyone with any questions can contact us via our usual channels.”

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