Victoria Park Tunnel Opens To Traffic

Auckland’s $340 million Victoria Park Tunnel is open! The project, constructed by the NZ Transport Agency to ease congestion on one of the busiest sections of the city’s motorway network, is the first of the government’s seven roads of national significance to be completed.

The Victoria Park Tunnel opened to traffic at dawn on 14 November

The tunnel was officially opened on 29 October three months ahead of schedule by Prime Minister John Key in an early-morning ribboncutting celebration. Mr Key was accompanied by the Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce, the Mayor of Auckland, Len Brown, and representatives from the NZTA and its project partners.

The project will help boost economic growth, improve travel times and provide safer journeys through central Auckland with the addition of three new lanes for northbound traffic on State Highway 1. Two of these lanes opened to traffic on 14 November.

Testing and timing

The NZTA’s state highways manager for Auckland and Northland, Tommy Parker, says that, prior to opening to traffic, the NZTA carried out extensive testing of the tunnel’s operating systems. “We expect the tunnel to be used by around 55,000 to 60,000 vehicles every day. It has been built to the highest international safety standards, but these tests were essential so that we could be certain for the safety of drivers that all systems will perform reliably if there is an emergency,” he says.

The tunnel lanes had to be connected with State Highway 1, and Mr Parker says timing was critical for this necessary work. “Work had to be done at the weekend when traffic volumes were lighter to minimise motorway delays. Fortunately, the weather was fine, and we were able to complete the connections,” he says. The tunnel’s third lane will open next March.

Mr Parker says drivers will benefit from significant travel time savings when both Victoria Park and the nearby Newmarket Viaduct replacement project are completed next year. Victoria Park is the northern gateway to the Central Motorway Junction (CMJ), and the Newmarket Viaduct its southern gateway. A daily average traffic flow of 150,000 vehicles makes the CMJ the country’s busiest section of motorway.

“Improvements at both ends of the CMJ will make journey times more reliable and safer, and help reduce Auckland’s annual bill for traffic congestion, estimated at $1 billion,” Mr Parker says. “Serious delays here, particularly during the morning and evening traffic peaks, are costing businesses dearly. And that, in turn, is costing Auckland in terms of its international reputation as a city and region.”

Tunnel celebrations

Two days prior to the official opening, a thousand guests enjoyed a once-in-a lifetime experience, dining inside the tunnel. The gala dinner was held to raise much-needed funds for the Ronald McDonald House Auckland Trust. The audience was treated to performances from some of New Zealand’s most loved music acts, including Avalanche City, Annabel Fay and Lisa Crawley, and a breath-taking floor gymnastics performance.

All proceeds from the evening have gone towards the completion of Ronald McDonald House Auckland Trust’s family accommodation facility, Grafton Mews. The trust provides support and accommodation for families from all over New Zealand whose children must be in Auckland to receive treatment at Starship Children’s Hospital.

Saturday’s official ribbon cutting was followed by a public open day, and 17,000 people walked through the 450 m long tunnel. “Public interest in this project has been tremendous,” Mr Parker says. “Constructing a complex project like this in the middle of a city is never easy, and the open day was our way of saying ‘thank you’ to the community for all the support they have given us.”

Staged completion

The tunnel’s opening is the first step in the staged completion of the broader Victoria Park Tunnel project, which also includes motorway widening through St Marys Bay and reconfiguration of the Victoria Park flyover for four lanes of southbound traffic (see above).

The old northbound lanes on the Victoria Park flyover have been closed, enabling work to start to reconfigure the entire flyover for southbound traffic. The flyover is due to open in its new configuration in early January and will be preceded by an extensive information campaign to educate drivers about the new motorway layout and their need to get into the correct lane for their destination before the flyover or risk ending up in the wrong place.

Mr Parker says all additional northbound capacity will be released in March, when the third lane in the tunnel and a new peak-time lane through St Marys Bay will open.

The Victoria Park Tunnel project is being constructed by an alliance comprising the NZTA, Fletcher Construction, Beca, Higgins and Parsons Brinkenhoff. “This alliance has to be congratulated for delivering the project ahead of time and on budget,” Mr Parker says. “Not only have they delivered the first tunnel project built in the central city, but have taken extreme care to preserve and renew key parts of Auckland’s heritage like the Rob Roy Hotel, the Logan Campbell Free Kindergarten building and the Jacobs Ladder walkway. It’s a project that Aucklanders and our partners can be proud of.”