SH1 Cambridge to Piarere expressway Community Information Day – meet the team

Interested in what’s happening along State Highway 1 Cambridge to Piarere? Join us for a community information day to learn about this key transport project – and other state highway and local projects.

• Where: Cambridge Town Hall, Victoria Street, Cambridge
• When: Wednesday 19 November, anytime between 2pm and 6pm

The community information day is a chance to connect directly with the teams behind:

• SH1 Cambridge to Piarere (C2P) expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS) project
• SH1/SH29 intersection – roundabout
• Upcoming maintenance on SH1 and state highways around the Waikato
• Other regional and local developments such as Hamilton Southern Links

“We’re looking forward to sharing updates and talking with the community,” says NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) Regional Manager Infrastructure Delivery, Darryl Coalter.

“Over the past 3 years a lot has happened. The project has been identified as a Road of National Significance, and we’ve got resource consents and confirmed the route.

“This is part of the nationally strategic transport corridor for New Zealand, connecting the Auckland region to the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, and linking to the central and southern North Island,” Mr Coalter says.

“We’ve been working hard to get ready for when funding is available. We’re also continuing to acquire property, permits, authorities, advancing the design and preparing for ‘enabling’ works.”

We are aiming to begin construction in late 2026, subject to funding, and construction is expected to take 5 to 6 years.

Before construction can start, we have to do some early work to prepare for it,” says Mr Coalter.

“We expect to start these works early next year and they may include relocating lizards, installing bat roosts, removing trees and installing noise walls. Undertaking these works ahead of the main construction works will assist the contractor once appointed.

C2P is a 16km long 4-lane expressway, which will extend the southern end of the Waikato Expressway through to the recently completed SH1/SH29 roundabout at Piarere. It will be designed for 110km/h speed limit, with median separation, side barriers and wide shoulders, similar to the other sections of the Waikato Expressway.

There are 3 main components:

• The online section broadly follows the existing SH1, from the end of the Waikato Expressway to Karāpiro Road. Local roads will be located on both sides of the expressway for this section to maintain access to properties and side roads
• A grade separated (where roads are at different heights) interchange near the existing SH1 and Karāpiro Road intersection will link realigned local roads via roundabouts with on/off ramps to the expressway in both directions.
• Just east of Karāpiro Road, the alignment moves north onto a new offline corridor that sits approximately 1km north of the existing SH1 and ends at the recently completed SH1/SH29 intersection.

Whether you're a resident, business owner, or simply interested in the future of this expressway extension, we’d love to see you there.

For more information and to sign up for updates