Work to start on resilience upgrades for Milford Sound highway
Work to strengthen a key South Island highway vital to tourism will soon begin, the New Zealand Government announced.
The South Island and Associate Transport Minister James Meager said the Government allocated around $40 million in Budget 2026 for resilience upgrades to State Highway 94 between Te Anau and Milford. This is part of a wider $150 million-plus package strengthening five of the mainland’s most vulnerable state highways. State Highway 94 is the only land access to Milford Sound, which is New Zealand’s top natural tourist attraction and is expected to draw close to one million visitors this year.
Work will start at Pop’s Corner (View Lookout), a busy tourist pullover area, where the roadway will be widened. Rock from this work will be used to protect the road shoulder elsewhere on the corridor against scouring from the Eglinton River. Work will also begin at Marian Hill, where rock anchors and an underpinning concrete slab will strengthen an existing retaining wall supporting the highway. Movement in this wall over time has been impacting the road. Additional work is planned at six further sites on SH94.
The funding package will also address resilience risks to State Highway 60 Tākaka Hill, State Highway 6 between Cromwell and Kingston, and State Highway 6 between Haast and Hāwea. These roads face risks including rockfall, slips, flooding and washouts that can cut off communities, tourism and freight connections.
Source: New Zealand Government (beehive.govt.nz), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Changes may have been made. Distributed via BLINK Wire. Original release
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