A new 110km/h speed limit on State Highway 1 (SH1) for the Northern Gateway Toll Road, from north of Orewa to south of the Johnstone’s Hill Tunnels came into effect from Monday 26 May.
Announcing the change, Transport Minister Chris Bishop said with around 11,000 vehicles per day travelling on the Northern Gateway, and nine per cent of those being heavy vehicles, the new higher speed limit of 110km/h will help ensure people and freight can get to where they need to go, quickly and safely.
Late last year, the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) consulted on the proposed speed limit increase to 110km/h. More than 7,900 submissions were received from across Northland and Auckland, with 93% in support of the increased speed limit and 91% strongly supporting it.
The road has been designed and built with safety features such as two lanes in each direction providing safe passing opportunities, physical median separation between opposing lanes, and a mostly straight, wide alignment. Additional safety improvements are being considered over the next 12 to 18 months.
Minister Bishop said Kiwis have had their say and NZTA has assessed the Northern Gateway Toll Road as being safe to increase the speed limit to 110km/h. Police will apply the same enforcement to 110km/h roads as any other part of the road network.
The new 110km/h speed limit on the Northern Gateway Toll Road comes into effect on Monday 26 May and will apply for the 5.5km section of State Highway 1 (SH1) from north of Orewa to south of the Johnstones Hill Tunnels.
The speed limit on SH1 through the Johnstones Hill Tunnels will remain 80km/h. While the SH1 Johnstones Hill Tunnels are built to high safety standards, the enclosed environment within a tunnel creates a different safety risk to that of the surrounding motorway. There are no current plans to review or change the speed limit for this section.
