Pōkeno Main Street Project Update
as of 16 August 2024
Kia ora everyone,
We’ve made some great progress and nearing our final switch to stage 4 at the roundabout!
What’s happened the last couple of weeks:
Main Street
The old bins are back in place but you’d hardly recognise them! The wrap has given them a new lease on life and they look great in their permanent homes.
Roundabout
The Gull entrance was prepped and poured on Saturday afternoon. This was a great result and gave us the maximum curing time possible before tankers were back on it at the end of the day Tuesday. Thanks to the team at Gull for their cooperation with this one!
The east side of the roundabout has been constructed with chip seal and a first layer of Asphalt is being laid. That’s it for now until the final ‘smooth’ Asphalt layer is applied. We’re working on the ‘Town Side’ leg of the Roundabout next week, removing deep soft spots before we re-apply base layers and pavement.
The team at Counties Energy moved a power pillar for us which opened up the remaining footpath work on the Eastern side. Footpath construction is underway and ongoing.
What’s happening over the next week or 2:
Main Street
Repairs will be carried out in the coming weeks on the edges of the new Main Street seating and planters. Being large concrete fixtures, they were prone to minor damage on their journey and installation. This will require us temporarily fencing off the seats/planters while we make repairs and to allow enough curing time. The seats will be out of action for up-to 1 week.
Once cured, we’ll work early morning to finish the edges. We’ll do this outside of main shop hours given the potential noise impact.
Roundabout
We’re wrapping up at our current Eastern work site and are shortly moving to stage 4 (the final piece of significant construction). Our new Northern worksite will stretch into Pokeno Road to allow kerb construction and we won’t have enough road-width to create 2-way traffic.
The big change you’ll see in a weeks’ time is a traffic switch and a change in detour at the Roundabout.
During the week of Monday 26 August, the Southbound Lane of Pokeno Road will be BLOCKED before the Roundabout. This will be in place for approx. 4 weeks.
Motorists wishing to access the Main St from Pokeno Road will be directed to travel around the detour route (in the opposite direction to what the detour currently is). Please see the attached map to understand the traffic settings that will be in place from Monday 26 August.
Key points to note are:
The only route impacted is Southbound down Pokeno Rd which will be blocked off.
Southbound off the motorway can still go to town or go North up Pokeno Rd.
Northbound from town will be able to go up Pokeno Rd or North to the motorway.
NOTE:
We are working hard to get the roundabout fully open to allow traffic flow from all directions - ahead of schedule.
A heads up though - to open all lanes of the roundabout as early as possible we will place some minor works on hold and complete these as standalone items with minor disruptions unavoidable.
Examples of this are footpath completion, vehicle crossings etc.
When ready, the final asphalt layer will be done during night works.
There have been NO delays to our programme and we remain on track.
