Waka Kotahi NZTA has delivered apology letters with earplugs to houses along State Highway 2 between Masterton and Carterton because of noisy overnight concrete drilling.
Contractors have started drilling holes in the middle of the road before installing the wire median barrier fence.
The noisy work – which started last week without notice – happens between 8pm and 4am.
The project team delivered earplugs to houses directly on the side of the highway.
Waka Kotahi apologised to residents for starting the loud work last week without any warning, saying in its letters, “We’re sorry we didn’t allow you adequate time to advise this work was coming up.”
The next drilling session was scheduled to take place last night, with the work continuing until the end of June.
Waka Kotahi regional infrastructure manager Jetesh Bhula asked affected residents to “bear with us” through the drilling.
“We do appreciate the work is disruptive to residents. However, we also must balance the impact on them against the need to minimise daytime traffic delays.
“There are no easy solutions, and for a project of this size and scope, it is impossible to avoid some inconvenience for both drivers and residents,” Bhula said.
“Our contractors are trying to mitigate both, but unfortunately, some impacts are unavoidable.”
Once the median wire barrier is installed, SH2 residents will not be able to turn right out of their driveways and instead will need to travel to the nearest roundabout or turning area before heading back in the other direction.
Short term pain for long term gain.
Same thing happened in Rakaia last week. Everyone was asking on the local Facebook page what’s the noise. My husband is on shift work and it took days to catch up from sleep deprivation.