Roading Reseal and Rebuilding Programme 2025-26
The Tararua District's reseals season is planned to kick off early December, and will run to March 2026 (subject to weather). We are chip sealing 90km of our road network over 39 roads across the district.
Like repainting a weather board house to protect the boards, chip seal resurfacing is a protective road surface treatment that extends the life of a road by keeping it watertight. We will have already done the pre-reseal repairs, sometimes up to a year prior.
Resealing improves road safety by adding texture and increasing traction. A thin layer of bitumen (a sticky black glue) is sprayed on the road and covered with small stones. Vehicles can drive through chip seal sites almost as soon as the chip is on the ground - this helps the chip bed into the glue.
We monitor the surface condition of all the districts roads and there are many factors that go into deciding which roads are sealed each year, from traffic volumes to surface wear and tear. Our target is to reseal 5% of the network each year.
We are using a mix of stop/go and road closures. Please follow traffic management.
Roading rebuilding (rehabilitation)
We are also rehabilitating – or rebuilding – sections of eight roads:
- Oringi Road
- Maharahara Road
- Laws Road
- Top Grass Road
- Weber Road
- Norsewood-Ormondville Road
- Matamau-Ormondville Road
- Takapau-Ormondville Road
This involves the comprehensive overhaul of existing roads, digging out worn-out sections, installing or renewing drainage, road shaping, compacting and sealing. The roading team will be doing the work under Stop/Go and road closures.
A road rehabilitation treatment is like giving a road a full makeover, rather than a patch repair. Think of it like this: if you have an old weatherboard house, you can only repaint and fix small sections so many times. Eventually, the boards wear out and need to be replaced. Roads are the same — after several rounds of minor repairs and resurfacing, the road gets to a point where it needs a more serious fix. That’s where a rehabilitation comes in — it’s the roading equivalent of replacing those old weatherboards.
In New Zealand, rural roads are generally designed to last about four or five resurfacing cycles, which usually adds up to 30 to 40 years. But this can vary depending on things like how the road was originally constructed, the local soil conditions and how much traffic the road gets.
Given Tararua District Council maintains 1187km of sealed roads, we use specialised tools and processes to determine when a road is nearing its end of life. This ensures we’re making smart, cost-effective decisions — fixing roads not too early, and not too late.
The type of rebuild we do, depends on the road’s hierarchy and the applicable national standards. This hierarchy takes into account things like whether the road is in a rural, urban, or peri-urban area, how much traffic it carries, and whether it serves farms, forestry, homes, or industries. That’s why sometimes a new section of road might look a bit different from the older parts — the standards, its usage or the environment may have changed since the last time it was done.
So, in short: pavement rehabilitations treatment is a planned, full-width upgrade of a road that’s reached the end of its life, done at the right time and to the right standard, based on where the road is and how it’s used.
Reseals with road closures
Dates will be confirmed closer to the time and included in the weekly roading update on the Tararua District Council Facebook page.
| Road Closure | Detour |
|---|---|
| Te Awe Awe Road, Eketāhuna | 4 minute detour via Hamua-Hukanui Road |
| Troup Road, Woodville | 6 minute detour via Ormond Road, McLean Street (SH2), and Vogel Street (SH3) |
| Condoit Road, Papatawa | 11 minute detour via SH2, Pinfold Road, and Valley Road |
| Pinfold Road, Woodville | 12 minute detour via Leith Road, Valley Road, and Coppermine Road |
| Laws Road, Dannevirke | 3 minute detour via Tamaki River Road |
| Adelaide Road, Dannevirke | 6 minute detour via Cole Street, Allan Street, Queen Street, Rawhiti Street, and Taradale Road |
| Cadman Street, Dannevirke | 3 minute detour via Queen Street, Princess Street, and Adelaide Road |
| Whenuahou Road, Ormondville | 9 minute detour via School Road, Otawhao Road, and Takapau-Ormondville Road |
Reseals with Stop/Go
Listed alphabetically.
- Aerodrome Road, Dannevirke
- Bridge Road, Eketāhuna
- Coast Road, Pongaroa
- Hamua Rongomai Road, Eketāhuna
- Herbertville Road, Herbertville
- Kumeroa Road, Kumeroa
- Kumeti Road, Dannevirke
- Maharahara Road, Dannevirke
- Mangahei Road, Te Uri
- Mangaone Valley Road, Eketāhuna
- Mangaraupiu Road, Eketāhuna
- Maunga Road, Ormondville/Dannevirke
- Matamau-Ormondville Road, Ormondville
- Ngapaeruru Road, Te Uri
- Norsewood-Ormondville Road, Ormondville
- Ormondville-Te Uri Road, Ormondville
- Pahiatua-Pongaroa Road, Pahiatua
- Rawhiti St, Dannevirke
- River Road, Ākitio
- River Road, Woodville
- Route 52 Sections 157, 121, 109, 44, 63, 84
- School Road, Norsewood
- Smith St, Dannevirke
- Takapau-Ormondville Roadd, Ormondville
- Te Uri Road, Te Uri
- Tipapakuku Rd, Dannevirke
- Totaramahonga Rd, Dannevirke
- Tourere Road, Te Uri
- Waitahora Road, Waitahora
- Waitahora Valley Road, Waitahora
Find out more
If you'd like to talk to someone about this work, please call the Tararua Alliance on 06 374 5341.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
We need dry conditions and a temperature of at least 14 degrees to do this work, so the chip seal can set. If the weather looks too cold, wet, or windy, we may need to postpone the work.
- There are different types of road surfacing methods. Chip seal is used a lot in New Zealand especially on lower volume roads. Asphalt – the smoother, darker surface – is generally used for higher traffic roads.
- We are using chip seal because it is economical, flexible and hard wearing.
- It currently costs about $10 per square metre for chip seal, and about $60 per square metre for asphalt.
- Chip seal has been used in New Zealand since 1913. It’s still our most common road sealing treatment.
- To drive safely through a chip seal site, slow down – 30km/hr is the golden speed. Too fast and you’ll rip up the road, too slow and the road will stick to you.
- Keep your pets out of the area for 24 hours to make sure they don’t get bitumen on their paws.