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• The speed limit on State Highway 51 between Napier and Clive has changed overnight from 80km/h to 100km/h. 
• Linda Stewart, from NZTA, said the change aligned with the Setting of Speeds Limits Rule 2024. 
• Ruth Malone, a mother with two children at Hōhepa, expressed concerns about safety for people with intellectual disabilities living and working nearby. 

A overnight change to a Hawke’s Bay State Highway’s speed limit has surprised at least one local. 

The 80km/h speed limit along State Highway 51 that connects Napier to Clive has now reversed to 100km/h. 

The change was made overnight on Thursday evening and Friday morning and signs along the road now read 100. 

The 60km/h sign at the Tutaekurī Bridge (Waitangi) on State Highway 51 between Napier and Clive. Photo / Jack Riddell 

Linda Stewart, the director of regional relationships, NZTA, said that the change had been made in line with the Setting of Speeds Limits Rule 2024 (the Rule). 

“The Rule legalises the Government’s expectation that speed limits on New Zealand’s roads will be managed in a way that supports economic growth, boosts productivity, and enables people to get to where they are going quickly and safely,” she said. 

However, Stewart made it clear the speed limit is the maximum speed and not the target and anyone caught speeding by police can be expected to be pulled over. 

Ruth Malone has two adult children with intellectual disabilities who live and work at Hōhepa along State Highway 51. Photo / Jack Riddell and Michaela Gower 

Sitting on SH51 is Hōhepa, a business and residence that supports people with intellectual disabilities. Ruth Malone has two adult children at Hōhepa and said she was surprised by the change to 100km/h, believing it wouldn’t go up until July 1. 

NZTA said in January that speed limit changes happening as part of the rule would be implemented by July 1, 2025. 

Malone said if Hōhepa was a school “we wouldn’t even be having this discussion”. 

“The guys have to have an intellectual disability to get cared for by Hōhepa, so you’ve got a lot of people without much road knowledge in place, so it’s no different to a school,” she said. 

Malone said NZTA’s lack of communication about the date the speed limit was frustrating. 

She had written to MPs Catherine Wedd and Katie Nimon, and Minister for Transport Chris Bishop. 

“I got a blanket response from Chris Bishop saying that that’s all the Labour speeds that were put down that ‘we’re putting back’,” she said. 

“It’s almost Trump-ish you know, with him going ‘whatever Biden did, we’re reversing’, well they’re saying the same sort of stuff.” 

Labour Transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said National made a “gimmicky election promise without listening to the communities affected by speed limit rises” and are “failing to read the room when it comes to what the country wants”. 

Napier MP Kaite Nimon said National campaigned on the the speed limit reversal and the new speed limits would “boost economic growth and productivity – allowing people and freight to get to where they need to, quickly and safely“. 

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.