Viaduct upgrade finishes a month early

Auckland’s dry summer and an accelerated programme has enabled the Auckland Motorway Alliance to finish an upgrade of the Victoria Park Viaduct a month early.

Work crews finished installing 1.5km of new steel barrier and 50 LED lights earlier this week, taking just over six weeks to complete the work that was originally due for completion by 18 March.

The early finish delivers on the Transport Agency’s promise to communities to complete the upgrade as quickly as possible.

“We were conscious that this work was sometimes going to be noisy and was in close proximity to houses. It was a priority for us to ensure that the contractor finished the work as quickly as possible, while still focusing on delivering a quality result,” says the NZ Transport Agency’s Auckland and Northland Highway Manager Brett Gliddon.

“We thank the nearby communities for their patience and support while this work took place,” he says.

Drivers will already be noticing the cleaner, white light provided by the LEDs, which provide improved visibility and better driver safety . The new lights are cheaper to maintain and will require replacement less often, meaning fewer closures for drivers on this critical part of the motorway network.

Work to upgrade the viaduct started on 5 January and all southbound traffic was detoured off the motorway at Fanshawe Street to re-join either SH1 or SH16 at Hobson Street. “Without the ongoing support of drivers over the past six weeks we wouldn’t have been able to complete this work so quickly,” says Mr Gliddon.

The new steel barriers now match those elsewhere on the motorway network. Crews cut off the old rail and post barrier and replaced it with sections of new steel barrier at a rate of approximately 50 metres each night.

The cost of the upgrade was about $2.5 million.

The overnight motorway closures to facilitate this work are part of the Summer Season Journeys campaign being delivered by the Transport Agency.

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