Lockdown Forsyth

Parent of newborn: "This child is a perfect vessel and I shall nurture it with the finest organic foods." Parent of 4yo: "Fine, you can have fairy bread for breakfast, just put your pants on and get in the car."

Did your merging get you a spot on Santa's nice list? Or on his naughty one? We’ve been watching Wellington, Auckland, and Tauranga for the best (and worst) merges. Did your efforts earn Merge of the Month?

We're looking for a merging masterpiece in Auckland and Wellington! Which drivers conduct themselves well and which fall flat? Were you the one that played the right notes to win the coveted Merge of the Month?

There's exciting progress on the rebuild of SH25A in Coromandel following the slip earlier this year—thanks to groundwork and preparation, workers have started building the bridge. With the first supports in place, you can see the first part of the bridge taking shape!

As workers onsite prepare to build a 124-metre-long bridge across the slip on SH25A in Coromandel, parts of the bridge are being built offsite. We’re aiming to open SH25A by the end of March 2024. Building offsite allows work through winter, helping us open the road quickly.

Merge of the Month: Are you New Zealand's best merger? We're looking at Auckland and Wellington for the month's best merge. Merging like a zip reduces congestion and improves safety, and makes us smile and think fondly of you. Always signal and leave space for others.

This Road Safety Week we want to celebrate our littlest road safety heroes. They’re out there every day, rain and shine, looking out for all their wee mates, and all they ask for is for everyone to take care around schools.

We're excited to share that SH5 will reopen to all traffic during the day from 7am next Monday, 20 March. The road doesn’t look like it did before—there are 32 damaged sites along the route. There'll be speed restrictions in place, and there are active work sites.

Bailey bridges are being installed in some places where existing bridges have been damaged or washed away by the recent floods. A Bailey bridge is a prefabricated single-lane bridge that can be installed relatively quickly—anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

Many roadworkers have been personally affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, and have to deal with those impacts while working to reopen the roads. We want you to hear their stories. Here's a look at Wairoa, with Jeremy from the local contractor QRS: youtube.com/watch?v=oy6ePs…

Our teams are working as fast and safely as they can to get State Highway 1 over the Brynderwyns, just north of Auckland, reopened.

The full impact of Cyclone Gabrielle is starting to emerge. Our priority is to restore safe access for these communities so they can get the essential supplies they need, and so they can reconnect with their loved ones.

Watch this barrier save a driver’s life, stopping a head-on crash with a truck. This video is from a truck driver’s dashcam. The barrier stopped the driver from travelling into oncoming traffic, slowed them down, and kept their car upright. They walked away from the crash.

Back by popular demand—it's Merge of the Month! This time we're checking out Auckland and Wellington for examples of good and... not so good examples of merging. Merging like a zip reduces congestion and improve safety, and gets brownie points from us. What's not to love?

We saw more wild weather over the weekend—this time down south. In floods, when it's safe our crews check roads and bridges for damage. We need to check for damage to the surface of roads and, especially with bridges, for damage caused by debris carried by floods.

There've been a huge amount of slips following the extreme weather events across the upper North Island. There are two types of slips: underslips and overslips. Here’s an explanation of what each one is, and why one’s much more challenging to sort than the other.

We want to acknowledge the efforts of all the workers, contractors, and subcontractors who've responded to the extreme weather events of the past week. These dedicated people have been working flat out at all hours and in difficult conditions.

The state highway network across the upper North Island continues to be majorly affected by flooding, slips, and other damage, and there'll be potentially long-term effects. Our people are out again today assessing damage caused by flooding, slips, drop-outs, and debris.

Don't speed up when you're being passed by someone in a passing lane. If you're travelling this summer, keep left unless you're passing. When you're approaching a passing lane, if someone’s passing you, let them pass. Don’t speed up and prevent them from safely passing.

We’ll soon announce when the Peka Peka to Ōtaki expressway north of Wellington will open, and it’ll be a game-changer when it does! It's not just a bypass for traffic—it'll help boost the region’s productivity and growth, and make Ōtaki calmer, quieter, and more enjoyable.

Even little kids know how to stay within the lines. Never cross a yellow no-passing line—you never know what could be coming around the corner.