Huntly expressway gets official tick of approval
The road has been spiritually cleansed and blessed, but there’s still a wait before the Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway will become State Highway 1.
Water trucks sprayed filtered water to spirituality cleanse the new section ahead of a convoy of around 400 people who attended five blessings on the road early Friday morning.
The formalities included a ribboncutting at the northern interchange by King Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero and Transport Minister Phil Twyford, and concluded with speeches.
While the official proceedings are done, the New Zealand Transport Agency won’t publicly confirm when the upgraded SH1 will open to motorists with the aim to prevent queues of people wanting to be first over the tarseal.
There are also some finishing touches to be done, like part of the wire median barrier to still be installed and a section of asphalt to be laid.
The $408 million dollar project is the second to last section of the 102km Waikato Expressway to be finished, Hamilton is scheduled to wrap up at the end of next year.
The construction of the Huntly project has seen NZTA work closely with Waikato Tainui and the Kings office due to the cultural significance of the area.
Spokesman for the King, Brad Totorewa said that over and above the road efficiency, the decreasing time travelling from town to town, the most important thing for them is two cultures coming together and embracing Mana Whenua.
‘‘I’d say that in the process of developing the road there are certain benefits that we received as Mana Whenua, employment opportunities for our people were big, the cultural aspects, the employment opportunities, they lead to social change and then to cultural transformation so this road isn’t just a road,’’ Totorewa said.
The Huntly section is a 15km fourlane highway with side and central safety barriers that takes SH1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams and over Taupiri Range.
The project began in August 2015 and, at its peak, had 500 people, and over 150 pieces of machinery on-site.
The biggest challenge on the Huntly section was shifting a hillside to create the Taupiri Pass which is a 57-metre deep cutting.
It required 1.3 million cubic metres of earth and rock to be moved and used as fill on other parts of the road.
The cut-through Taupiri hill is about 400 metres long and 40 metres wide.
There are nine bridges where the expressway crosses local roads, streams and the Main Trunk Railway Line.
Despite this, the Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway hasn’t convinced Transport Minister Phil Twyford to continue building four-lane highways in the Waikato.
Twyford acknowledged the significant work that had been done to complete the Huntly section, however when Stuff asked if seeing the road built could persuade him to extend the expressway into Cambridge to Piarere and the Southern Links he reiterated that a roundabout would instead be built at the dangerous intersection of SH1 and SH29.
Late last month Twyford announced that as part of a $58 million government spending package a roundabout would be installed on the main route between Hamilton and Tauranga.