Final push for Te Kaha Street upgrades

Christchurch City Council is signalling upcoming nightworks and road closures as it pushes to complete the Te Kaha Surrounding Streets package.  

“Construction around the stadium has had a high impact on local residents, business owners and commuters,” says Council General Manager of City Infrastructure Brent Smith. 

The first stage of upgrades to the water and road infrastructure around One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha started in July 2024. 

“We’ve been working closely with our contractors over the last eight months. There are currently about 100 contractors working on site each day. Crews are working weekends and sequencing work to save time, while still delivering a high standard of work.   

“As a result, we’re looking at around a year for the bulk of the project to be delivered, instead of the originally anticipated 18 months,” says Mr Smith.   

Major works will start to wrap up from May, with minor works like line marking, landscaping, and streetlight commissioning continuing into the spring.  

“We have about three more months of intensive construction ahead of us,” says Mr Smith. 

The last phase will see several road and intersection closures, as well as night and weekend works. 

The corner of Cashel Street, leading onto Madras Street, will close for around five weeks from Monday 24 February, so contractors can install new traffic lights, kerbing and pavements. 

The Barbadoes Street and Madras Street intersections on Tuam Street will close periodically during April for pavement reconstruction. 

“While most of the Tuam Street work is scheduled for weekends and overnight to lessen the impact on residents and commuters, we still anticipate some disruption in the area between 11 April and 27 April,” says Mr Smith. 

Several permanent road layout changes will also soon come into effect. 

Around the start of March, Lichfield Street east of the stadium will be converted to two way, allowing traffic to flow both ways between Fitzgerald Avenue and Barbadoes Street.  

One block south, Tuam Street will be converted to one way shortly after, making all of Tuam Street east-bound within the central city.  

Two permanent road layout changes will come into effect during March.

“We thank everyone for their patience while we get this important work done and encourage people to continue to support businesses in the area,” says Mr Smith. 

Full details about upcoming works and traffic detours are available on the Isaac Construction website.