Learn more about city expressway plans
Today we begin a monthly column about Hamilton’s biggestever roading project – the Hamilton Section of the Waikato Expressway.
Each month, Project Manager Matt Fairweather will provide an update on progress and what’s happening behind the scenes – protecting wildlife, restoring the gullies, keeping everyone safe, and so on.
We’re building a 22km fourlane expressway east of Hamilton, but a lot of people don’t know about it yet. So here’s an opportunity to see what we’re doing first hand. Come to our public open day – 10am-3pm, Saturday, April 1.
You can see everything we’re doing, view our big machines close up, and walk through a bridge construction site. The event will be held at our Visitor Centre at 164 Percival Road (sign- posted off Ruakura Road).
We’re already halfway through our first summer construction season. Our target is to complete the bulk earthworks this summer and next.
These summer seasons run from October to April when the ground is relatively dry.
Our earthworks team will move more than 4 million cubic metres of dirt and sand in those first two seasons – that’s 114 rugby fields piled 5m high.
That leaves us a third full season to complete pavements and sealing.
We’re pouring 28,000 cubic metres of concrete to build 16 bridges– that’s enough concrete to build a footpath from Hamilton to Napier.
As we build the Hamilton Section, our intention is to minimise our impact on native plants and animals, and to enhance the local habitat.
We’re capturing and relocating native fish and lizards, we’re checking trees for bats, we’re planting 650,000 new plants and we’re restoring 10 hectares of gully habitat.
We’ve even looked after pied stilts and their chicks when they decided to nest in the middle of our construction site.
And we’re in constant contact with the Department of Conservation. We’re also working closely with local iwi and hapu who are represented by our Tangata Whenua Working Group.
We have kaitiaki (guardians) from local Iwi working with our earthworks team whenever we strip topsoil, to assist in identifying cultural or archaeological sites.
And because we’re skirting around a large city, we’re busy informing and communicating with the many local communities along the route, and with the three councils – Waikato District, Hamilton City and Waikato Regional.
Our project will reduce congestion on city roads, improve road safety, reduce travel times, improve connections for business and freight, and support economic growth. It will also change the way we live and travel. Instead of having two major gateways into the city, we will have five. How will it affect you?
If you need answers or information, visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/hamilton, email info@cityedgealliance.co.nz or freephone 0800 322 044. Visit the Expressway Facebook page for photos and info: www.facebook.com/ waikatoexpressway.