Holiday road trip will be smoother next summer
Routes in, out and around Hamilton will be a lot smoother for holidaymakers next summer as the Waikato Expressway completion draws closer.
Work on the last piece of the billion dollar roading puzzle is progressing, with final surfacing happening in the northern part of the section on Lake Road, just north of Gordonton.
Once complete, those travelling south from Auckland will be able to by-pass Hamilton altogether, cutting the drive time to Tı¯rau by 35 minutes.
But there is still 120,000 tonnes of surfacing to be laid before that point.
Waka Kotahi NZTA principal project manager, Jo Wilton, said the next few months was their busy period due to the weather conditions.
‘‘Over the summer work will continue in the southern area getting the fill up and finishing off the structures. And getting the pavement in, so we can get some traffic shifts in and carry on completing the interchange.
‘‘In the north there will be more and more pavement and surfacing done which won’t be as visible as it’s done offline and it will only be seen from the bridges that cross the alignment.’’
Once completed, the depth of the pavement road would be around 1.5 metres.
Construction on the Te Rapa off-ramp has also begun and will eventually bring northbound traffic off the Nga¯ ruawa¯ hia section and onto Lake Road.
The on-ramp will also allow travel south on the Hamilton section.
Like the majority of New Zealand work, was on the expressway shut down during the Covid-19 lockdown in March and April – peak construction time.
‘‘It has had an impact, we would be lying if we said it hadn’t had an impact.
‘‘When you work on a construction site you are itching to get out there to work when it’s beautiful weather because that is our best time.
‘‘So that did have an impact on the programme, it did delay our pavement and surfacing – which has pushed us into this season.’’
It also has meant they’ve struggled with some off-shore deliveries, as well as staff travelling inter-regionally when Auckland went back into lockdown.
The Hamilton segment of the project was already delayed last year and was to be completed in late 2021.
In 2019, the NZ Transport Agency put the delay down to ‘‘resourcing levels for the contractor in a construction market and unseasonal weather of the 2016/17 summer’’.
Despite the enforced stoppage, Wilton said they still managed to get a lot of work done over the past 12 months which meant the project was showing definite signs of becoming more road like.
‘‘We have seen a lot of the pavement going down and then some asphalt and sealing going down which makes it look almost complete.
‘‘We’ve seen some kerbs go in so the road is definitely taking shape. If someone came in they would see where the road is going to go and where it’s heading.
‘‘There has been a lot of planting – so when you drive through the site you can see where all the planting will be.’’
The 17 bridges are almost complete and the Powells Road underpass is currently under construction.
At the southern end, Tamahere motorists will see the changes happening as they drive through it.
‘‘Before we were lower from where they could see from the road. But now we have come up and can see where we are working to join in.
‘‘They can see where the tie in is and where they will divert off when the expressway is open.’’
There will be around 350 to 400 staff working over summer to make sure progress is made.
Once finished the Hamilton section will be a 22km four-lane, 5-star safety rated highway, taking State Highway 1 east of Hamilton.
The cost of this section is $607 million – which Waka Kotahi NZTA said is on budget.
Just over five million cubic metres of earth and sand have been moved – with about 50 per cent of the 870,000 plants already in the ground.
With 120,000 tonnes of asphalt required on site, earlier this year a temporary asphalt plant was installed on farmland, which has been leased from project neighbours Tainui Group Holdings near the Ruakura Interchange. It can make up to about 600 tonnes a day.
The Hamilton section is the last of seven sections that will see the Waikato Expressway a four-lane highway from the Bombay Hills to south of Cambridge. Those that are already completed are Longswamp, Rangiriri, Nga¯ rauwa¯ hia, Te Rapa, Cambridge and Huntly this year.
Waka Kotahi NZTA said the expressway would reduce significantly the number of fatal and serious injury crashes.
‘‘Covid has had an impact, we would be lying if we said it hadn’t had an impact’’
Jo Wilton