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

  • Innovative sealing of world's longest immersed tunnel
    April 16, 2012
    Infrastructure has been chosen to provide a sealing system for the world's longest immersed tunnel. China Communications Construction is said to have selected Trelleborg for the innovative design of its seals, which are claimed to ensure watertightness even through a seismic event. Part of China's prestigious Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macau link project, the immersed near 6km tunnel will consist of 32 elements. The joints will be sealed with a Trelleborg sealing system including Gina gaskets, Omega seals and wat
  • Modern road system is 'a must'
    August 2, 2012
    Australia's GDP could see a major increase if traffic bottlenecks in big cities were to be removed, and the government is addressing this as a matter of urgency A modern road system is a must in Australia where it is estimated that the removal of traffic bottlenecks could potentially raise the country's GDP by 0.8%. According to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), which made the prediction, infrastructure bottlenecks (particularly in cities, which account for over 70% of the country'
  • Deutsche Bank and Akbank among banks to fund Gebze-Izmir motorway
    March 19, 2015
    A final financing agreement for Turkey's 421km Gebze-Izmir motorway project will be signed by nine banks, eight of which will be Turkish, in April. The agreement will be for around US$4.73 billion of the deal likely to cost in total more than $6 billion and which is the country’s largest public-private partnership project. The banks are Deutsche Bank and Turkish banks Akbank, Garanti Bankasi, Finansbank, Is Bankasi, Halkbank, Ziraat Bankasi, Yapi Kredi and Vakfbank. Work has been going on since 2010 for the
  • Contracts are about to be signed for the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link
    March 13, 2015
    Nearly eight years after Denmark and Germany agreed to construct a major undersea road and rail tunnel, the first contracts are about to be signed. David Arminas reports. Construction is due to start later this year on one of Europe’s most ambitious, as well as the world’s longest, road and rail tunnels, the 17.6km Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link between Germany and Denmark. Fehmarnbelt is expected to cost around US$7.5 billion and be five times the length of the Øresund tunnel between the Danish capital Copenhagen