New Manukau motorway a showcase of bridges

After four years of construction, the NZ Transport Agency’s SH20–1 Manukau motorway extension is almost complete and ready to provide tens of thousands of motorists with smoother and faster journey times.

The $220 million project connecting State Highways 20 and 1 will ease congestion of local roads in central Manukau and improve links to and from Auckland International Airport. It is scheduled to open progressively in three stages between August and December.

The 4.5 km long motorway replaces Wiri Station Road as the primary connection between SH1 and SH20. It will have two lanes in each direction, features 12 bridges and bypasses 12 sets of traffic lights. The new motorway will form the southern end of the Western Ring Route – a 48 km alternative to SH1 between Manukau and Albany via SH20, SH16 and SH18.

State highways manager for Auckland, Tommy Parker, says the motorway extension will bring many benefits: “It will reduce travel times and help ease congestion on local roads within the Manukau City Centre area. It will provide infrastructure for the future growth of the area and create key transport links so that road users and freight operators can move more efficiently.”

The first part of the new motorway to open will be the SH20 southbound lanes in late August. Traffic will be able to access the extension from SH20 and the Cavendish Drive and Lambie Drive interchanges. After more construction work, the westbound lanes will open up in late September, allowing traffic to travel from SH1 and Lambie Drive onto the new motorway lanes.

Traffic on Roscommon Road will detour on Wiri Station Road to Lambie Drive to get onto the westbound lanes of the new motorway. This will enable work to continue on the Cavendish– Puhinui connecting road and on-ramp, as well as the final realignment of the Puhinui Stream. Once this work is completed in December, the Cavendish– Puhinui connecting road will be opened and the motorway project complete. Drivers will be able to access the motorway and the airport from Cavendish Drive.

NZTA’s contractors, Leighton Works, are also completing the earthworks for the new Manukau rail link, the first rail network extension in Auckland since 1930. It will connect Manukau City Centre with Auckland’s rail network. It is scheduled to open in early 2011, in time for the new Manukau Institute of Technology’s campus being built near the station and due to open in 2012.

As well as supporting educational growth, the new motorway is a key element of the infrastructure for supporting residential housing demand, with Flatbush township due to see 40,000 people move to the area by 2020.