New Zealand state highway network
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The New Zealand state highway network is the major national
highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...
network in
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
. Nearly 100 roads in the
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...
and
South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
s are state highways. All state highways are administered by the NZ Transport Agency. The highways were originally designated using a two-tier system, national (SH 1 to 8) and provincial, with national highways having a higher standard and funding priorities. Now all are state highways, and the network consists of SH 1 running the length of both islands, SH 2 to 5 and 10 to 59 in the North Island, and SH 6 to 8 and 60 to 99 in the South Island, numbered approximately north to south. State highways are marked by red shield-shaped signs with white numbering (shields for the former provincial highways were blue). Road maps usually number state highways in this fashion. Of the total state highway network, New Zealand currently has of
motorways A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
and expressways with grade-separated access and they carry ten percent of all New Zealand traffic. The majority of the state highway network is made up of single-carriageway roads with one lane each way and at-grade access.


History

In the early days all roads were managed by local road boards. Initially they were set up by the Provinces. For example, Auckland Province passed a Highways Act in 1862 allowing their Superintendent to define given areas of settlement as Highways Districts, each with a board of trustees elected by the landowners. Land within the boundaries of highway districts became subject to a rate of not more than 1/- an acre, or of 3d in the £ of its estimated sale value and that was to be equalled by a grant from the Province.C W Vennell & Susan Williams: Raglan County Hills and Sea 1876–1976 By 1913 the government was collecting £21,000 in duty on cars, but spending £40,000 on roads. The idea of a national network of highways did not emerge until the early twentieth century, when a series of pieces of legislation was passed to allow for the designation of main highways (starting with the Main Highways Act 1922, followed by gazetting of roads) and state highways (in 1936). This saw the National Roads Board, an arm of the Ministry of Works, responsible for the state highway network. From 1989 to 2008, state highways were the responsibility of Transit New Zealand, a Crown entity. In 1996 the funding of the network was removed from the operational functions with the creation of Transfund New Zealand, which then merged with the Land Transport Safety Authority to create Land Transport New Zealand. That was done to ensure that funding of state highways was considered on a similar basis to funding for local roads and regional council subsidised public transport. In August 2008, Transit and Land Transport NZ merged to become the NZ Transport Agency. Every five years the NZ Transport Agency will embark on a state highway review to consider whether the existing network should be expanded or reduced, according to traffic flows, changes in industry, tourism and development. From 2009 many new road schemes were classed as
Roads of National Significance Roads of National Significance (RoNS) was a name given by the 5th National Party Government, to a programme to speed up road construction in New Zealand between 2009 and 2017. RoNS were first announced on 20 March 2009 by Transport Minister, ...
and, from 2020, as part of the New Zealand Upgrade Programme.


Classification

Since 2013, the NZTA has used the One Network Road Classification (ONRC) system to classify state highways and local roads. There are five categories for state highways, with an additional sixth category (Access) used only by local roads. The categories are as follows: *National: Generally these roads link the country's largest urban areas (population greater than 100,000) major ports and major airports. They generally have an annual average daily traffic volume (AADT) of 15,000 or more. Examples includes most of SH 1, SH 29, the Wellington–Palmerston North–Napier route (SH 57, SH 3, SH 2, SH 50A and SH 50) and most State Highways in the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch urban areas. *Regional: Generally these roads link the country's main urban areas (population greater than 30,000), medium-sized ports, medium-sized airports, and major tourist destinations, or are the major route linking an isolated region. They generally have an AADT of 10,000 or more. Examples include most of SH 2 and SH 3, SH 5, SH 73, and Queenstown–Milford Sound route (SH 6, SH 97 and SH 94). *Arterial: Generally these roads link the country's secondary urban areas (population greater than 10,000), medium-sized ports and regional airports, or are the only route linking an isolated area or provide an important detour function. They generally have an AADT of 3000 or more. Examples includes most of SH 6, SH 8, SH 27, and the SH 1 Desert Road detour (SH 46, SH 47, SH 4 and SH 49) *Primary collector: Generally these roads link the country's minor urban areas (population greater than 2000). They generally have an AADT of 1000 or more. Examples includes most of SH 4, SH 7, SH 35, and SH 83. *Secondary collector: Generally these roads link rural towns (population less than 2000) or rural areas. They generally have an AADT of less than 1000. Examples include SH 43, SH 63, SH 85 and SH 87.


Volumes

From 2006 information, the busiest stretch of SH 1 was just south of the Auckland Central Motorway Junction, on/near the
Newmarket Viaduct The Newmarket Viaduct is a seven-lane state highway viaduct in Auckland, New Zealand. The 700 m long viaduct, which is up to 20 m high, carries the Southern Motorway over the Newmarket suburb. Original structure The viaduct was opened on ...
, with over 200,000 vehicles (either way) each day. The least busy parts of the network (excluding off-ramps and on-ramps) are on SH 43 north-east of
Whangamōmona Whangamōmona is a small township in the Stratford District and Manawatū-Whanganui Region in New Zealand. It lies on State Highway 43, the "Forgotten World Highway", north-east of Stratford and south-west of Ohura. By rail it is from Stratf ...
, with fewer than 120 vehicles (counting both directions) in a day. The only remaining unsealed sections of state highway are of SH 43 and of SH 38, though 38% of other roads remain unsealed. Every year the New Zealand Transport Agency produces a booklet titled ''AADT Data'', average annualised daily traffic, that gives traffic volumes on all state highways from their automated vehicle recording system.


Distance markers

State highways are marked with posts at irregular intervals giving the distance in kilometres from the start of the highway. Until recently, all bridges on the network had at each end a small plaque showing the distance from the start of the highway, usually in the form of a number in kilometres, an oblique stroke, and a further number in kilometres, accurate to the nearest 10 metres. A plaque marked 237/14.12, for example, indicated that the bridge was past a set distance post, that post being from the start of the highway. In about 2004 these plaques were replaced by a new system, which gives each bridge a single number showing the distance from the start of the highway in hundreds of metres. Under the new system the bridge above would be numbered 2511, as it is  km from the start of the highway. Motorway on- and off-ramps are numbered using the same system. In this way, travellers can accurately assess their location, and road authorities can identify each bridge uniquely. Sometimes, houses with
RAPID Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade'' ...
numbering can also be used to determine the position. For example, house number 1530 is from the start of the highway.


Safety

In early 2008, Transit New Zealand unveiled KiwiRAP (the New Zealand Road Assessment Programme) in cooperation with other government agencies and the New Zealand Automobile Association. The system, based on similar programs overseas, categorises New Zealand state highways according to the safety of discrete 'links' (sections of the network, with a total of 10,856 km of highways separated into 172 links ranging in length from to ). These are graded according to their 'individual risk' and their 'collective risk' based on historical crash data and traffic volumes. The individual risk is based on the likelihood of a single driver experiencing an accident while travelling the link in question. As of 2008, the three least safe sections of the network based on individual risk were State Highway 62 from Spring Creek to Renwick (Marlborough), State Highway 37 to Waitomo Caves and State Highway 94 from Te Anau to
Milford Sound Milford Sound / Piopiotahi is a fiord in the south west of New Zealand's South Island within Fiordland National Park, Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) Marine Reserve, and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. It has been judged the world's top tr ...
. The collective risk is based on the total number of crashes that occurred on the link, which pushes safer but very highly travelled sections of the network to the top of the statistical category. As of 2008, the three least safe sections of the network based on collective risk were all on State Highway 2, on the sections from Napier to
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
,
Mount Maunganui Mount Maunganui (, ) is a major residential, commercial and industrial suburb of the Tauranga metropolitan area, located on a peninsula to the north-east of Tauranga's city centre. It was an independent town from Tauranga until the completio ...
to
Paengaroa Paengaroa is a village in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand which lies 11 km from Te Puke, 35 km from Tauranga and 46.2 km from Rotorua. Paengaroa is located on State Highway 33 approximately 2 km from the junction with Stat ...
and Bay View to Napier. Both categories of assessment are to be used as an advisory tool for both drivers to inform them of dangerous road sections as well as to allow traffic controlling authorities to prioritise maintenance and safety improvements. The 2015–18
National Land Transport Programme National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
aimed to invest $3.2bn (23% of the NLTP total) in safety, including $960m for policing, $132m for road safety promotion and $103m for rural SH safety. The ''Safe Roads Alliance'' is carrying out rural work on SH 1 (Waikato Expressway, Te Teko-Awakeri), SH 1B (Taupiri-Gordonton), SH 3 (Ohaupo-Te Awamutu, Waitomo-Te Kuiti), SH 11 (Airfield-Lily Pond), SH 12 (Dargaville-Tokatoka), SH 16 (Brigham Creek-Waimauku), SH 23 (Hamilton-Raglan), SH 27 (SH 26-SH 24) and SH 34 (SH 30 to Kawerau). The ''Alliance'' is using speed reductions, wire rope barriers, wide centrelines, rumble strips, better warning signs and
shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...
widening.


Specific sections


State Highway 1

State Highway 1 can be considered as a single highway running the length of both main islands, broken in the middle by the ferry connection at
Cook Strait Cook Strait ( mi, Te Moana-o-Raukawa) separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The strait connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast. It is wide at its narrowest point,McLintock, A ...
. It connects six of the seven largest urban areas and includes the country's busiest stretch of road.


Touring routes

Many sections of state highway provided are marketed as
tourist highway A scenic route, tourist road, tourist route, tourist drive, holiday route, theme route, or scenic byway is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. It often passes by scenic viewpoints ...
s, sometimes jointly with local roading providers. Transit maintains
traffic sign Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduce ...
s on and near state highways to help promote these routes. These include: * Twin Coast Discovery Highway – ring route around the
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
and Northland regions. * Pacific Coast Highway – route going around the north-east coast of the North Island, joining Auckland and Napier. * Thermal Explorer Highway – route going from Auckland to Napier through the geothermally active centre of the North Island. * Surf Highway – alternative name for SH 45 from
New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...
to Hawera. Named due to the number of surf breaks along the
Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...
coastline. *
Classic New Zealand Wine Trail A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...
– a route through three of New Zealand's major
wine regions This list of wine-producing regions catalogues significant growing regions where vineyards are planted. Wine grapes mostly grow between the 30th and the 50th degree of latitude, in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Grapes will sometimes ...
, from Napier to Blenheim, via
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
, Woodville,
Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...
,
Martinborough Martinborough ( mi, Wharekaka) is a town in the South Wairarapa District, in the Wellington region of New Zealand. It is 65 kilometres east of Wellington and 35 kilometres south-west of Masterton. The town has a resident population of The town ...
,
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
, and Picton. Requires a
ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
crossing across
Cook Strait Cook Strait ( mi, Te Moana-o-Raukawa) separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The strait connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast. It is wide at its narrowest point,McLintock, A ...
between Wellington and Picton. *
Alpine Pacific Triangle Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...
– a triangular loop including sections of SH 1, 7 and Route 70 () linking the popular destinations of
Hanmer Springs Hanmer Springs is a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. The Māori name for Hanmer Springs is Te Whakatakanga o te Ngārahu o te ahi a Tamatea, which means “where the ashes of Tamate’s (sic) fire lay ...
, Kaikoura and
Waipara Waipara is a small town in north Canterbury, New Zealand, on the banks of the Waipara River. Its name translates to "Muddy Water", ''wai'' meaning water and ''para'' meaning mud. It is at the junction of state highways 1 and 7, 60 kilometre ...
. * Inland Scenic Route – formerly SH 72, this road goes from Amberley to
Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
(near
Timaru Timaru (; mi, Te Tihi-o-Maru) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to ...
). This road follows around the foot of the Canterbury Foothills, inland on the Canterbury plains. * Great Alpine Highway – Highway 73 going from
Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
in Canterbury over the Southern Alps via
Arthurs Pass Arthur's Pass, previously called Camping Flat then Bealey Flats, and for some time officially Arthurs Pass, is a township in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Selwyn district. It is a popular base for explori ...
to Kumara Junction on the West Coast. *
Southern Scenic Route The Southern Scenic Route is a tourist highway in New Zealand linking Queenstown, Fiordland, Te Anau and the iconic Milford Road to Dunedin via, Riverton, Invercargill and The Catlins. An Australian travel magazine labelled it "one of the ...
20px – route going along the southern coast of the South Island from
Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
via
the Catlins The Catlins (sometimes referred to as The Catlins Coast) comprises an area in the southeastern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The area lies between Balclutha and Invercargill, straddling the boundary between the Otago and Southlan ...
,
Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...
and Riverton to Te Anau. *Starlight Highway - route from Fairlie to Mt Cook in the
Mackenzie District Mackenzie District is a local government district on New Zealand's South Island, administered by the Mackenzie District Council. It is part of the larger Canterbury Region. Geography Principal settlements The Mackenzie District only has three t ...
of Canterbury in the South Island. This route includes SH 80 and parts of SH 8. In recognition of the area being an international dark sky reserve (''Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve'').


See also

*
List of New Zealand state highways This is a list of highways of the New Zealand state highway network and some touring routes. State highways are administered by the NZ Transport Agency, while all other roads are the responsibility of territorial authorities. Current North I ...
*
List of roads and highways List of articles related to roads and highways around the world. International/World * Asian Highway Network * Arab Mashreq International Road Network * Alaska Highway * International E-road network * Pan-American Highway * Trans-African Highwa ...
, for notable or famous roads worldwide


References


External links


Highways information portal
at NZ Transport Agency
Virtual Highway
(
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
-based interactive state highway map, including videos of major highways) {{DEFAULTSORT:New Zealand State Highway Network Roads in New Zealand