Road freight operators say safety improvement work on State Highway 5 between Taupō and Napier cannot start soon enough.

The NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi project manager Chris Mahoney told RNZ that 60 serious crashes and 13 deaths had occurred along the stretch in the seven years prior to 2023.

On Monday, January 8, contractors begin work widening centrelines and shoulders, and installing safety barriers at high-risk bends.

Crews will also continue repairing potholes and resealing and re-marking parts of the road's surface

A section of State Highway 5 between Te Pohue and Glengarry crumbles due to a slip after Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023. Photo: Supplied: Waka Kotahi.

Transporting New Zealand interim chief executive Dom Kalasih says the difficult geography of the area means the work will have a far greater safety benefit than blanket speed reductions.

"On the north end, there's quite a long section of road where it was relatively straight and the speed was reduced, now that's unlikely to make that much difference.

"Whereas the type of work they're doing now - cordon widening, shoulder widening, centre line widening - in a really demanding piece of the network, that is where the risk is."

Dom says that part of SH5 has had a bad history of crashes.

"Trucks do try to pull over where they can, but often a lot of our slow vehicle bays... are still pretty marginal... They're still very narrow, very short.

"These changes will make it easier for other motorists to get past the trucks."

Dom says any costs incurred because of delays during the construction will be well justified, and he hopes motorists will be patient while the work is underway.

A file pic of a section of the road. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin.

-RNZ.