Skip to main content

New Zealand bypass project attracts controversy

New Zealand’s Mount Messenger bypass project has attracted some controversy and opposition. The 5.2km route will cost around US$129 million (NZ$200 million) to construct and will include two bridges as well as a tunnel section. The alignment has been selected from five options as it minimise environmental damage. However there are complaints from environmentalists that the project will damage a 44ha area that includes forest and wetlands as well as posing a threat to some endangered bird life.
July 18, 2019 Read time: 1 min

New Zealand’s Mount Messenger bypass project has attracted some controversy and opposition. The 5.2km route will cost around US$129 million (NZ$200 million) to construct and will include two bridges as well as a tunnel section. The alignment has been selected from five options as it minimise environmental damage. However there are complaints from environmentalists that the project will damage a 44ha area that includes forest and wetlands as well as posing a threat to some endangered bird life.

Related Content

  • TensarTech supports Polish contract
    November 12, 2012
    TensarTech soil retaining walls have been used during the construction of a section of the A1 motorway in Poland. Extensive underground mining in the south of the country posed a significant challenge to building the 16km Piekary Slaskie to Pyrzowice (Katowice Airport) stretch of the motorway which, on completion, will run more than 240km from Gdansk in northern Poland to Gorzyczki on the Polish-Czech Republic border. To accommodate potential differences in settlement on embankments approaching a series of
  • Stonehenge tunnel project being designed
    April 12, 2017
    Consultant AECOM is now working with Highways England on improvements to the busy A303 in the UK. The road upgrades will be carried out between Amesbury and Berwick South Down along a 13km section of the A303 route. AECOM will work with its supply chain partners Mace and Mouchel on the project. As the current alignment for the A303 passes just 165m from the Stonehenge World Heritage site (WHS), there is a strong need to redevelop the route so that it causes less harm to this important archaeological area. T
  • 12D for Christchurch
    June 12, 2012
    Australia's increasingly popular 12D Model software package for road design, terrain modelling, surveying and drainage has been selected as the main design and survey tool for the coordinated earthquake rebuild of Christchurch in New Zealand The 12D Model software will be the common platform for a group of consultants and contractors making up the recently formed SCIRT, standing for "Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team". They will use it for survey, repair and rebuild of both the road netwo
  • CPB Contractors closes deal for Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel
    December 13, 2017
    CPB Contractors has achieved contractual close on Melbourne’s planned 5km West Gate Tunnel, originally called the Western Distributor. The road will link the West Gate Freeway at Yarraville, a suburb of Melbourne, with the tolled CityLink road network at Docklands via a tunnel beneath Yarraville.