We're adding about three kilometres of guardrails along Dyers Pass Road to improve safety for people using the road. The road has a high crash rate and the steep terrain means that when crashes do happen, they often result in severe injuries.

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The new guardrails are being installed in high-risk locations, which should reduce the severity of crashes. The work sites are towards the top of the hill on both the city side and Governors Bay side of Dyers Pass Road.

By the end of the project, there will be guardrails along almost 70% of the route. The road is also being widened in some places as part of the safety upgrade.

The work is disruptive for users of Dyers Pass Road and we recommend that commuters take alternative routes through Lyttelton Tunnel or over Gebbies Pass where possible.

Dyers Pass Road is down to one lane in multiple places while we do the work with stop/go or temporary traffic lights in place.

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Worksites/traffic lights

To provide safe stopping points, traffic lights are positioned so you have a good view of them and the queueing traffic. Sometimes this means the worksite is longer.

Drainage channels

When there is heavy rain, water can flood across the road. This is unsafe for people using the road and can damage the surface of the road. Soil erosion is also an issue on the Port Hills, and there are water quality conditions as part of the consents for the project

Drainage channels are being installed and are shaped so that drivers or cyclists could drop a wheel into the channel without losing control of their vehicle.

Cycle lanes

This is a safety project to install guardrails at high-risk locations and reduce the risk of injury when vehicles veer off the road. 

However, there is currently not enough room on the road to provide cycle lanes on Dyers Pass Road. To create enough space for an uphill cycle lane, more of the rock cliff on the inside of the road would need to be removed which would be very expensive and have a big environmental impact.

The project does widen the sealed shoulder of Dyers Pass Road to allow more space for everyone on the road.

Victoria Park access road

The Victoria Park access is not a legal road so we cannot use it to detour traffic. The access road is also not designed or suitable for a high volume of traffic.

Completion date

The work we are doing at the moment will be finished at the end of June this year. There may be more safety work to be done on Dyers Pass Road but we do not know when that will happen at this stage.

Work area map

We are now working at three different sites on Dyers Pass Road. There will be a stop/go in place at each site so expect delays.

Dyers Pass Road safety improvements work area