Haere mai! Welcome
Faster and more reliable state highway journeys to drive economic growth
Congestion on SH1 through the city has a long history, with solutions looked at a number of times. The proposed design we’re presenting here takes into account what you have told us previously and previous design work and integrated planning with WCC and GWRC.
The SH1 Wellington Improvements Roads of National Significance project will alleviate Wellington’s longstanding bottlenecks with the construction of a second Terrace Tunnel, a second Mt Victoria Tunnel, and a major roading upgrade at the Basin Reserve, and supporting improvements to the state highway corridor through Wellington city, Hataitai and Kilbirnie. People and businesses will be able to get where they need to go faster and more reliably, while unlocking productivity and regional economic growth.
An efficient and reliable state highway network is critical to Wellington. Currently, SH1 through Wellington is heavily congested at peak times, causing delays and unpredictable journey times and increasing traffic on local roads as people seek alternative routes.
Without investment, as the regional population grows, travel times and reliability will worsen - hampering productivity and restricting economic growth.
Respecting environmental and cultural values
The proposed design reflects a balance between affordability, stakeholder needs and expectations, design solutions, and environmental and cultural values.
This project is being developed in partnership between NZTA and Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika and Ngāti Toa Rangatira (mana whenua).
Community engagement
We now invite feedback from the community. Engagement will be open for 4 weeks from Monday 17 November to Sunday 14 December 2025.
Resource Consent and other statutory approvals for this project will be sought through the Fast-track Approval process, in which there is no general ability for all members of the public to participate. This engagement is an important opportunity to share your views so NZTA can consider them as part of the next round of design refinements and as we finalise the proposed mitigations for our consent applications. We’ll publish a summary of what we heard from the community in February next year.
The survey will take between 3 minutes and up to 15 minutes depending on how much feedback you wish to provide. We will be asking you to tell us
- A bit about yourself and your travel along the SH1 route
- Your perceptions on the benefits of the SH1 improvements
- Your perceptions on particular sections of the improvements (you can select as many sites to view as you wish or none at all)
- Your perceptions on how much difference the SH1 improvements will make to you and to the wider Wellington Region
As well as responding to the survey questions, you will be able to expand on your responses and provide comments in open text sections throughout the survey.
If you would like to see more detailed information about the project, Visit the project webpage at: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/sh1-wellington-improvements/community-engagement
The link will open in a separate tab on your browser so you can keep the survey open while looking at the project webpage.
Thank you for your time.
Your response and privacy:
The information you send us on this online form will be used by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi to help inform our SH1 improvements project. NZTA may publish in part or in full the information you submit, for example in a consultation report, but we will not include any information that could be used to identify an individual person. If you have indicated you are an authorised representative of an organisation, we may publish your organisation’s name. Please clearly indicate if your comments contain commercially sensitive information or, if for some other reason, they should not be disclosed. If you would like to request official information from us, please don’t include that in your submission. Instead, please direct it to the project team at rules@nzta.govt.nz so we can respond to it in a timely manner. You can read more about how we handle your information on our website or contact us at SH1WgtnImprovements@nzta.govt.nz
