AFP reporters said pro-independence Kanak activists had rebuilt the roadblocks.
A masked 25-year-old who gave only his first name, Stanley, said the proposed voting reforms “mean the elimination of the Kanak people.”
“This is what they don't understand there: We are already in the minority in our own home,” he told AFP.
Another man wearing a mask, Simon, 34, said he was allowing drivers to pass through the barrier.
“It’s quiet. The regulars already know us on the barricades,” he said.
The Australian government's travel advice warned people not to go directly to the airport, saying routes “are not yet considered safe”.
The airport remains closed to commercial flights and a decision on when to reopen will be reevaluated on Thursday, the provincial government said.
It is estimated that around 3,200 people are waiting to leave or enter New Caledonia.
France has sent an additional 1,050 police officers to strengthen security in the territory, and an additional 600 reinforcements will arrive “in the next few hours,” the French High Commission in New Caledonia said on Tuesday.
He added that troops are being deployed to protect public buildings.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that troops should remain deployed in New Caledonia “for the time being.”
Viro Xulue, a member of the Kanak community group that provides social assistance, told Reuters it felt like a return to the unrest of the 1980s.
“We are really afraid of the police and the French army, and we are also afraid of anti-Kanak militia terrorist groups.
“The French government does not know how to control the people here. They sent more than 2,000 troops to control them, but they failed.”
New Caledonia has been a French territory since the mid-1800s.
