Tarata Road Projects

Background

Tarata Road is a rural road stretching from the eastern boundary of the Inglewood Township to the New Plymouth District / Stratford District boundary at Purangi, a distance of about 36km.

The road is currently sealed, except for the last 2km at the regional boundary.

The road is subjected to high levels of heavy traffic from forestry operations from both the New Plymouth and Stratford districts.  

Tarata Road Endowment Fund 

NPDC was the owner of approximately 544ha of farmland around Junction Road which was subject to 25 leases.

The Taranaki County Reserves Act 1966 (the Act) vested the land in the former Taranaki County Council (now NPDC) as freehold land as an endowment for County purposes.

Section 4 of the Act stated that part of the revenue from the leases be applied towards the cost of administration and management of the leases with the balance used for maintenance and improvement of Junction Road (now Tarata Road).

In 2010 we approved the sale of 25 Junction Road Leasehold Endowment properties owned by NPDC.

The freehold interests in 24 of these farmland properties generated $7.68m when sold and the proceeds put into an endowment fund (formerly named Junction Road Endowment Fund).

Taking in to account the interest generated and what has been spent to date, there is currently about $8.30m in the endowment fund, which is held on a term deposit with BNZ Bank.

Community meetings and surveys were held in 2014 and 2018 to get feedback, views and preferences on a draft 10-year road and maintenance work programme for Tarata Road.

The last survey was carried out at the same time as public consultation on the NPDC’s 2018-28 Long-term Plan and the list of projects decided on are included in the document below (see pages 4-7).

June 2025: A report was presented at the Council meeting on 24 June where the Mayor and Councillors approved using $3m from the Tarata Road Endowment Fund to match funding from NZTA Waka Kotahi (NZTA) for resilience projects on Tarata Road. See the agenda here. This was supported by the recently established Tarata Road Community Working Group.

Tarata Road Resilience Project

NPDC is undertaking a two-year project to upgrade some of Tarata Roads areas that are at high risk of the road surface falling apart. These areas have significant deterioration due to heavy logging traffic and insufficient maintenance, and the road is forecast to experience further degradation as forestry activity intensifies over the next 15 years.

Starting in the second half of 2025, the project aims to upgrade 5km of road between Inglewood and Purangi Saddle. This will involve a mix of road widening, realignment, drainage works, tree removals and rebuilding the road layers.

The outcome will be a stronger, more resilient road that’s better able to withstand not just the heavy traffic but also the effects of storms and flooding, which will improve user safety and reduce maintenance costs.

Six sites have been identified for improvement. The first site is a 1.4km section that will be finished by Christmas 2025, weather allowing, with the work shifting to other sites in the New Year.

The $9m project will use combined funding from the NZTA Resilience Fund, the Tarata Endowment Fund and existing funding within the NPDC Long Term Plan to deliver targeted improvements across six identified sections of the corridor.   

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News

Major upgrade of Tarata Road begins (14 October 2025)

Tarata Road Endowment Fund 2018 Work Plan

Project updates 

The following sites are scheduled for 2025 to 2027.  

Documents

• NPDC Monitoring Commitee Report 2015
• Inglewood Community Board Memo July 2020 and appendix
• Letter 

Frequently Asked Questions