Skip to main content

New Zealand link

A major milestone has been achieved in New Zealand on a major road project that is intended to deal with a major traffic bottleneck in the city of Auckland. The launching gantry team has now installed the last segment of the new northbound viaduct, a key stage in the Newmarket Viaduct Replacement project. There is currently a 1.5m gap between the segments. So, on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th December the two viaducts will be cemented together in an 18 hour procedure known as the Stitch. From then until the e
May 15, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSA major milestone has been achieved in New Zealand on a major road project that is intended to deal with a major traffic bottleneck in the city of Auckland. The launching gantry team has now installed the last segment of the new northbound viaduct, a key stage in the Newmarket Viaduct Replacement project. There is currently a 1.5m gap between the segments. So, on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th December the two viaducts will be cemented together in an 18 hour procedure known as the Stitch. From then until the end of January 2012, work will continue to prepare the new northbound half of the viaduct for traffic. The Switch of traffic to the new link will happen over the weekend of 28th-30th January 2012. The work has been on-going for some time and on 28th September 2009, the project team began the construction of the new southbound viaduct. In the two and a bit years since then, 468 concrete segments each weighing an average of 80tonnes have been cast in a yard in East Tamaki, transported to site, lifted into place, tensioned and secured to create the new southbound and new northbound viaducts. The project forms part of the Route 1 Southern Motorway, which feeds Auckland from the South and continues through the city and over the Harbour Bridge. The Route 16 Waterview tunnel will complete the Western motorway loop, which will enable through traffic to by-pass Auckland city altogether. This will reduce congestion over the bridge, the main transport link in all of New Zealand. The project will also incentivise heavy traffic to use the by-pass route, prolonging the life of the bridge. Eventually, the bridge will need to be replaced with a new bridge or a tunnel, and the existence of the by-pass will help to make that more feasible.

Related Content

  • Bulgaria: back on track?
    July 23, 2012
    Several important Bulgarian road projects are expected to gain momentum over the coming weeks, a welcome boost for a sector that has been beset by delays in the past. In mid-September, the National Road Infrastructure Agency (NRIA) announced that it would soon be declaring new tenders for the construction of two key road projects worth a total of US$94 million (approximately €68.8 million). One section will link the south-eastern city of Kardzhali to Podkova, near the Greek border: the second will connect t
  • Traffic control to beat congestion
    November 6, 2012
    Max Lay discusses how congestion has posed problems throughout history from early civilisation to the present day One of the earliest known human settlements was at the Springs of Elisha at Jericho. Inevitably, locals collecting fresh water from the springs would encounter other water carriers. When a path was too narrow, or access to it was too limited, or it crossed another path, some carriers would find it necessary to stand aside for others. Priority in such cases might be based on common courtesy and p
  • Zaxis-5s biggest-ever project
    January 27, 2014
    Norwegian contractor Carl C Fon has secured its largest-ever road construction contract to complete a 4.6km section of the E18 in the Mysen region of its home country. It started the €25million project in August 2012 and it is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2014.
  • Bridges in Sunderland and Poland are being slid into place
    February 6, 2017
    Sunderland sees a bridge slide into place and two bridges inch their way across a Polish highway Slowly but surely, a 2,500 tonne section of a new bridge deck was eased out from the banks of the River Wear near Sunderland in northern England. It now straddles the water, pointing towards the opposite bank which it will eventually reach after another sliding operation likely to take place next year. The project to build the New Wear Crossing is now halfway through with the first half of the steel deck b