A full list of the roads and the dates their speed limits go up is at the bottom of this article.
Reversals on blanket speed limit reductions will begin on Wednesday night, starting with State Highway 2 in the Wairarapa, and will be complete by 1 July.
The National and Act coalition agreement committed to reversing the reductions implemented under the previous Labour government.
In total 38 sections of the state highway network will be reversed back to their previous higher speed limits by NZTA over the next five months.
The state highway speed limit changes will take effect across the country in Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu-Whanganui, Greater Wellington, Canterbury, and the top of the South Island.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and newly-appointed Transport Minister Chris Bishop made the announcement near Featherston on SH2 on Wednesday morning.
Christopher Luxon and Transport Minister Chris Bishop at the announcement on Wednesday. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"To ensure this process happens efficiently, over the next few months NZTA will incorporate the automatic speed reversal work alongside planned maintenance and project works," Bishop said in a statement.
A further 49 sections of state highway will be put out for public consultation so "local communities can have their say on keeping their current lower speed limit or returning to the previous higher speed," he said.
Public consultation on those roads will run for six weeks from tomorrow.
Councils have until 1 May to advise NZTA of local road changes, which will require reduced variable speed limits outside schools during pick up and drop off times.
"By 1 July 2026, local streets outside a school will be required to have a 30km/h variable speed limit. Rural roads that are outside schools will be required to have variable speed limits of 60km/h or less," Bishop said.
"National campaigned on reversing the blanket speed limit reductions at the last election, and over 65 percent of submitters during consultation on the Land Transport Rule: Setting of Speed Limits 2024, agreed.
"Today provides a classic example of our government's determination to stop letting government agencies put things in the too-hard basket, and instead to push forward for actual results."
Christopher Luxon and Transport Minister Chris Bishop at the announcement on Wednesday. Photo:
Transport rules were "complicated and technical", Bishop said, which was why it was taking five months to get all of the speed limit reductions reversed.
While it was not a simple process - which was why it had taken more than a year in government to announce the changes - Bishop said it was also just a case of changing the rule put in by former Labour transport minister Michael Wood to reduce the speeds.
"It's taken a few months to go through the categories of roads and work out what falls in and what doesn't," he told reporters in Featherston.
In regards to the 49 stretches of road up for consultation, he said "there will be differing views in the communities" and time would be taken to hear all that feedback.
Bishop insisted it was "safe to do these changes".
"The number one factor driving deaths on our roads is drugs and alcohol."
The coalition was passing drug driving legislation in the coming weeks that would introduce roadside saliva drug testing and fund 50,000 tests to police each year, he said.
In addition. the government was investing heavily in breath testing and setting performance targets around that, and investing in safer roads, he said.
NZTA is responsible for making the changes and Bishop said it was "working really hard to make sure we deliver on this".
The roads where speed limits are going up:
The roads up for consultation:
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