Expressway sector on time, under budget
Plenty of people found out about what goes into creating a major highway at NZTA’s open day on Saturday. Dominico Zapata took the photos.
A final section of the Waikato Expressway – a fast track from Auckland to Tirau – will be on time and under budget.
The Hamilton section of the new State Highway 1 is nearing the halfway mark and, despite a mixed summer, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has reaffirmed a 2020 opening.
The project was billed at $973 million in 2016, when then prime minister John Key broke soil.
But NZTA has shaved off $330m, due to lower-than-expected market rates and innovation in the construction of the Southern Interchange.
An open day held on Saturday attracted hundreds of curious spectators and it was all hands on deck for project staff as site engineers manned the tour buses and accountants flanked the barbecue.
Tours were driven on to the haul road – a broad dirt strip on which pavement will be laid next summer – taken south from Ruakura Road bridge and down into a massive sand excavation pit.
From the pit comes much of the dirt now spread the length of Hamilton, and 50 dump trucks are now shifting the last of 2 million cubic metres of sand before earthworks wind down for the winter season at April’s end.
The 1.5 million cubic metres of sand shifted so far are enough to cover 80 rugby fields 9m high.
Two of the 17 bridges to come are open to traffic. They’re constructed to last 100 years and to survive a one-in-2500-year earthquake event.
Morrinsville Road bridge, viewed at the end of the tour, is one of four bridges built from the top down. This way, the bridge comes first to keep traffic flowing, with the expressway then excavated out underneath.
‘‘By taking the excavation below ground, we reduce the noise and the visual impact on communities,’’ site engineer Shaun Hennessy announced to the bus.
Bikash Mukherjee, a dairy technologist who attended the open day with his family, said the expressway was a promising sign of growth in Hamilton, akin to the Victoria on the River park in the central city.
‘‘Proper roads, wider roads, it means more development. Hamilton is close to Auckland, and there’s a lot of potential, of course, with a lot of migrants coming in.’’
Quentin Stevens, an electrical products salesman, was impressed with the lengths taken to preserve the environment.
Eels, found in most streams and drains, and bats, found in some trees, were carefully relocated.
‘‘They’re going to great lengths to make sure the land is left better than when they started.’’
Stevens moved to Hamilton from Auckland nine years ago to escape the pace. But Hamilton’s pace has only picked up in that time.
He was looking forward to better traffic flow, which might allow for a sleep-in.
‘‘I’m on the road all the time for work … getting out of Hamilton, I have to really leave early.’’
NZTA contractors are hoping to knock off three more bridges and move SH1 traffic for the construction of the Southern Interchange in 2018.