Talk:New Zealand state highway network

Seal of SH1 north of Kaitaia
The statement "The last 87 km from Kaitaia to Waitiki Landing (21km south of Cape Reinga) are unsealed" isn't accurate. SH1 is definitely sealed where it leaves Kaitaia for Cape Reinga. I don't know where the seal ends. Moriori 01:42, Dec 7, 2003 (UTC)

You are correct - the most recent map I have available shows seal as far as Waitiki Landing. I think this text was left behind whne I corrected an earlier error which I introduced about the highway going all the way to the cape. Dramatic 10:17, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

SH 67
My mps show this as SH 67 all the way up to Karamea. However, the last time I visited Karamea 2 years ago, I recall seeing a "67 ends" signpost somewhere around Sumemrlea (just before the road turns inland for its big climb over Karamea Bluff). If this is the case, the highway would only be 52 Km long with the last 54 Km as undesignated road. dramatic 07:16, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Confirmed from Transit NZ that the highway ceases before Karamea Bluff dramatic 21:30, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

SH 1 Starts/Finishes
Technically, SH1 starts - in the S.I. at least - at Picton and goes to Bluff, and not the other way round. Not sure about the North Island. The kilometre posts are the clue... Christchurch has a 345 km post, Dunedin's northern motorway has the 700 km post indicating 700 km from Picton, and the numbers keep getting bigger as you travel further south. Not sure about the N.I. - I suspect it starts from Wellington and heads north. Grutness 13:42, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Finally found out. the NI's numbering starts at the top, too - Orewa is at 288km. I'll re-order the information on SH1 to match. Grutness...wha?  05:23, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

SH50A
I know the info for the highways around Napier/Hastings is incorrect. I'll try and get an up-to-date map, but anyone local is welcome to beat me to it!dramatic 21:40, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * There are some maps of the Napier/Hastings area at transit and page2 which may help. --202.89.147.79 01:16, 6 February 2006 (UTC)Gorman

West coast "correction"
Nurg, I'd argue that West Coast is correct. The oly place that the SH touches the west coast os on The West Coast - nowhere in Tasman, nor in Otago or Southland. Sure it goes through Nelson and Queenstown, but changing the capitalisation and removing the link doesn't alter the fact that neither of them are on the west coast or in the West Coast! The road does go via the West Coast - as well as going to Nelson and Queenstown. Grutness 12:29, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Bridge Numbering
Are we sure about the bridge numbering? I travelled down to Turangi last week and the numbering didn't seem to match. The bridges had four-digit numbers, and there were random posts along the way with format 624/5.00 (or something like that). Neonumbers 08:19, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)


 * This was the system - it's in the process of being changed over to a new system. I've expanded that bit of the text and moved it to its own section (though I'm not sure that section's now in the right place - move it to somewhere better if necessary)! Grutness|hello? [[Image:Grutness.jpg|25px|]] 06:13, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Missing highways?
I've just come across an old guide book which listed several highways not shown here. I've added them in, but they may no longer have Highway status, so if anyone knows any more.... the numbers are 40, 49A, 52, 57A, 89, and 91. Grutness|hello? 00:45, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm inclined to think we should list fully de-gazetted highways in a separate list at the foot of the page (to which 72 should be moved also). Highways which have been shortened (partial de-gazetting) or rerouted should have marginal notes in the main listing. There have certainly been many changes over the years.dramatic 02:28, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * As far as I can tell, 49A has been decommisioned (you have already noted all others in your list are "Formally"). I was in this area recently and didn't notice signage indicating 49A.  It also isn't on this list (although it doesn't mention 73A which appears on maps in another section of their pages).  Some of the distances in this list are different from what you have.--202.89.147.79 01:24, 6 February 2006 (UTC)Gorman
 * Highway 91 was the Balclutha to Kaitangata road; Highway 92 was the Balclutha to Invercargill via Owaka and Tokanui road. I think Highway 89 was the Crown Range Road from Wanaka to somewhere near Arrowtown. From memory, these three highways (and other parts of highways, such as that part of Highway 96 from Ohai to Tuatapere via Orawia and Clifden - the Clifden to Tuatapere section being retained but redesignated as part of Highway 99) were revoked some time around 1992. The cynic in me thought at the time that this was a quick and dirty way of improving the sealed/unsealed ratio of the State Highways, as Highway 92 was at the time still unsealed between Niagara and somewhere near Maclennan. Daveosaurus (talk) 11:44, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Waiau disambiguation
There is a link to Waiau that needs disambiguation, in the South Island Highways listing (the SH 70 entry). The link points at a red-link heavy disambiguation page at present. Thanks for your help. Courtland 02:07, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Yikes that was a horrible dab page! I've fixed it up as per NZ naming conventions. Grutness...  wha?  02:23, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

SH1 separate article?
is it worth splitting the information about State Highway 1 out into its own article? There's probably quite a bit of information which could be added in about its history (when different parts were first built, etc) which would be out of place on the current article but which would be useful to have on Wikipedia somewhere. Grutness...  wha?  02:30, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Three months and no comments... if no-one objects in the next week, I'll split out a separate SH1 article. Grutness...wha?  00:20, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't object but I advise (well, not "advise", more just "express concern") against it, unless of course there's a history to write on SH1, which I guess there is, prob about 10kb worth? A short history would be acceptable here, but if it gets long, of course, the entire history gets moved to a new page (without mention here).  You know what, you sound like you've got it all sussed... go ahead, be bold &mdash; as long as they'll be articles (i.e. the SH1 article won't be limited in length due to there being only a little bit you can write about it &mdash; some stubs are stubs for this reason).  (I don't even edit this article... I just watch it for some reason.)  Neonumbers 10:48, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
 * The main problem is that no-one seems to have written anything anywhere on the history of New Zealand's state highways. No books, nothing on the web, nothing. It would be possible to write quite a bit more about SH1, but extending it too much is going to make the current article very top-heavy. Grutness...wha?  05:22, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh, dear, that's going to be a small problem. Well, if SH1 is (arguably) the main highway of the network, so I'd say the SH1 section could get to a considerable length, maybe 50% of the full comprehensive article (whether this is fully comprehensive I don't know).  Neonumbers 10:37, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I've extended what's there (and rewritten it north to south rather than the other way round, since that's how the road numbering works). That will probably do for now. If I manage to find soemthing about the history of the road, though, I'll consider the split again. Grutness...wha?  00:45, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Route Shield
Hello. I'm an aussie and I've done some work on our Blue Shield system on wikipedia, and when I noticed that NZ used the same shield but that browny colour, I just changed colours and instantly, you have your own NZ State Highway sheild on the wiki. - Boochan 05:22, 7 January 2006 (UTC)


 * It's not brown, it's a dark red. Have a look at the photo near the bottom of the page. Actually, it'd be very easy for me to take a photo of this as well - I'll be travelling down SH1 in about half an hour :) Grutness...wha?  06:03, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Done. Grutness...wha?  09:02, 7 January 2006 (UTC)


 * No Probs - The picture below of the sign makes it look brown, thats all - Thats what my Paint Shop Pro intepreted it as... :) - Boochan 08:48, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

SH1 infobox
I've added an infobox to the State Highway 1 (New Zealand) article, though some of the information on it doubtless needs correcting (I was working from an old road map :). If we start breaking out other articles for NZ highways it could possibly be turned into a parametered template, though I get in a mess when trying to deal with template parameters myself. If interested people could check it out and make any amendments they feel necessary, it'd be appreciated! Grutness...wha?  09:23, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

SH13?
Has anyone else noticed that when you come off at the new Highbrook Dr exit on the Southern Motorway, it says that Otara, MIT & the shield for SH13 is towards Bairds Rd. I wasn't aware there was a SH13 going thru Otara/Papatoetoe/East Tamaki? - Martync84 22:43, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Is id definitely a red State Highway shield andnot a white urban route shield? dramatic 18:43, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
 * If a new SH were created there, 19 or 21 are both available, and more in keeping with the North to South Numbering. SH13, were it to exist, would be in Northland. Transit's map of North Island Highways doesn't show it . --Limegreen 21:33, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry, SH 21 is taken - its the State Highway connecting SH 1 and SH 3 to Hamilton International Airport (bit out of place, don't you think). Laydan M (mailbox) 04:44, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Definitely a red shield & not a white urban shield Martync84 10:13, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

SH22
State Highway 22 seems to have been shortened to stop north of Pukekohe, rather than extend right through to the Waikato River. I was driving along this route last week and the 'Highway Ends' shield is before you reach Pukekohe when travelling south. I see that Transit maps dated 1 January 2005 have this highway not reaching Pukekohe. 203.211.77.209 03:10, 23 May 2007 (UTC)Gorman

Separate articles on the eight national highways
Hi all - we've long had an article on SH1, but none on the other seven national highways. It's probably about time we did - I've just made State Highway 8 (New Zealand), which I'd like other editors to have a look at and comment/expand on. BTW, if anyone's willing to make any of the others, I'd be only too keen to make appropriate maps (just leave a note on my talk page). Grutness...wha?  23:54, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Shields for north island highways
I just uploaded the shields of all north island highways in [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:New_Zealand_state_highway_shields Commons Cat. "New_Zealand_state_highway_shields"], south island will follow in a few days. If someone wishes to add the missing shields to the articles, please also replace existing *.png files, all of them are drawn with wrong font and letter dimensions. Andy king50 (talk) 19:41, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks Andy. Maybe all the signs I see have faded (the SH44 ones aren't exactly old though), but those all look too bright. dramatic (talk) 06:45, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * i matched the color of my signs to the color shown by Transit NZ in their road sign manual vol. 07 Manual 07 / Guide Signs. The color there is specified as "reflectorized red" - the older signs could be a non reflectorized version - or the manual shows a wrong color. -- Andy king50 (talk) 15:20, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * South Island shields are finished too....Andy king50 (talk) 07:27, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

RAPID numbering
I've edited the example given for finding distances using RAPID numbering as this is only really applicable for the first stage of each highway. RAPID numbers are calculated from a datum point which is, more often than not, somewhere quite different from the start of the highway; the nearest major town, or even a minor town if the road changes name at a major or minor junction. For example, of the six major highways which comprise State Highway 94, only one of them (Waimea Highway) calculates its RAPID numbers from the start of the highway at Gore. Daveosaurus (talk) 11:29, 26 July 2009 (UTC)


 * RAPID numbers do follow distance markers on some highways - especially if the State Highway remains within a single territorial authority e.g. State Highway 49 (Ruapehu), State Highway 53 (South Wairarapa). I was thinking of the Tararua District when I was writing the part - they have the RAPID numbers on State Highway 2 following the distance markers (e.g. 83990) Lcmortensen (mailbox) 00:29, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

New Zealand Highway NavBox
Does anyone know how to add links to the navbox. I've made an article for SH29 but there is no link to it from the navbox.Videomaniac29 (talk) 08:11, 10 October 2012 (UTC)
 * ✅. Have added SH 29 link. For future reference, clicking the "E" in the top left hand corner of the navbox takes you to the navbox's edit page. From there it's pretty self-explanatory. Lcmortensen (mailbox) 09:59, 10 October 2012 (UTC)

SH x or SHx
There is a debate over at Wikivoyage about whether or not there should be a space between "SH" and the number. Usage here seems to be spaced. NZTA uses both forms, sometimes on the same page, eg,. Some other agencies specify unspaced, eg, NZ Post says "abbreviate 'State Highway' to 'SH' (eg. 'SH 1')". I'm guessing NZTA does not have an official style, since they use both - anyone know for sure? Nurg (talk) 07:55, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Naming convention
Has the naming convention for New Zealand state highways been discussed before? I find it rather unnatural that they are all named "New Zealand State Highway x" when "State Highway x (New Zealand)" would reflect the common name. Thoughts? Pointers?  Schwede 66  21:15, 8 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I haven't been around for long enough but I have always known the highway articles to be called "New Zealand State Highway x". This certainly has the way I created articles for the highways that were at the time not yet established (15, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 46, 47) Ajf773 (talk) 09:48, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

roads of national significance
Roads of national significance are mentioned in 17 articles, but none explains the concept, or lists the roads. Should there be a separate heading in this article, or would it be more appropriate as a separate article, or an expanded part of the last paragraph of Fifth National Government of New Zealand, with a link, or 'see also' here? Johnragla (talk) 23:39, 16 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I'd keep it as a separate article. Definitely notable and more a political initiative than being just a collection of state highways. Interestingly, the TraNZport blog has just published an article on RoNS. Maybe you saw it, too, and that is what prompted this question. Yes, it's a blog. It doesn't state who is writing the blog. I happen to know who it is and let's just say that it's somebody who knows the topic—transport planning—inside out (i.e. it's more than just a hobby). That is, I would regard this particular blog as a WP:RS.  Schwede 66  00:07, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I've created Roads of National Significance, though it could still do with more work on it. Johnragla (talk) 06:54, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

Numbering
"State highways are numbered according to which part of the country they are located. State highways within the Wellington, Manawatū and Hawke's Bay regions are numbered between 50-59, with 59 being the next available number for the Wellington region." This is a little more specific than what's in the article, though maybe still vague enough not to change anything. Mapsax (talk) 00:23, 26 January 2022 (UTC)