Upper Harbour Motorway Milestone Today

in General by Jon C — December 14, 2009 at 7:18 pm | 0 comments

The new bridges at Hobsonville Road and Trig Road were officially opened today.

They’re the first of seven bridges to be completed on the SH18 Hobsonville Deviation and SH16 Brigham Creek Extension project.

The 60 metre long Hobsonville Road bridge forms part of the Hobsonville Interchange with SH16. The interchange will connect the existing SH16 with the new SH18 motorway.

When completed, the interchange will feature four on and off-ramps for connections to Hobsonville Road, as well as access to the planned development opposite Westgate shopping centre.

Contractors worked through the night to completely dismantle the signalised roundabout at the end of the Northwestern Motorway which had kept live traffic moving around the construction area for the past year.

Hobsonville Road Bridge was then opened to traffic  yesterday and a new road layout and intersection is now in place. Construction will continue this summer to excavate the 200,000 cubic metres of earth from underneath the bridge to allow the new motorway to pass underneath.

Trig Road bridge carries local traffic from Trig Road over the new motorway which is being constructed underneath. The bridge forms part of the Trig Road Interchange which is being built as a ‘half diamond’ with two ramps for motorists travelling to and from the North Shore.

The next stage of work will see the earth dug out 11 metres deep underneath the bridge to create the new motorway route.

The six kilometre, four-lane Hobsonville motorway is the last section of the new SH18 to be completed and will connect to the Upper Harbour Bridge and Greenhithe sections at the eastern end and the Northwestern Motorway at the western end. The project also includes a three kilometre extension of SH16 to a new roundabout at Brigham Creek Road. The project will help to reduce congestion on Hobsonville Road and open up access to developing areas in Massey and Kumeu.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2012 with the hope the new motorway will help to relieve congestion bottlenecks and improve the connection for those travelling between the North Shore and Waitakere.