Transmission Gully opened in March 2022. Photo: Mark Coote
The transport agency is spending another $32 million fixing up Wellington's Transmission Gully just over three years after it opened because chip sealing was never completed.
The stretch of State Highway 1 is a crucial capital city transport link which opened in March 2022 and cost $1.25 billion to build.
From Tuesday, six kilometres of road will be rebuilt where water was seeping into the pavement, and there's 18 kilometres of chip-sealing work to be done.
NZTA's Mark Owen told Morning Report the builder never applied the final chip seal layer so it was not as waterproof as it should be.
"As part of the builder's managed exit programme we've now taken over the reins and we're getting in and doing some of the finishing work, and one of those is to put that final chip seal layer on and get the pavement nice and waterproof."
It would be finished by mid-February, but there would be more resurfacing work to come next summer and beyond, said Owen.
"Then we will be looking at maybe moving to an asphalt surfacing, which again is even longer life and a better surface over the next few years."
Owen acknowledged it would be disruptive, but State Highway 59 was available as an alternate route.
They were staging the work so the bulk of chip sealing would be completed in early January when there were few cars on the road, he said.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
