Subscribe to RSSWaikato Expressway Te Rapa Starts
Construction of the SH1 Waikato Expressway Te Rapa section was officially started today with the turning of the first sod by Transport Minister Steven Joyce.
Waikato District Council Mayor Peter Harris helped celebrate the start of construction and his long-time support of the project by operating a digger to excavate the first few buckets of eproject by operating a digger to excavate the first few buckets of earth.
The sod turning ceremony was followed by a public information day, where construction plans were shared with the local community and stakeholders.
The construction of the $194m Te Rapa section of the Waikato Expressway will support future land use planning and urban design for Hamilton City. It will also improve traffic flows through the city’s northern entrance, near The Base, and will open up further industrial and commercial opportunities for the city and surrounding district.
NZTA Regional Director Harry Wilson says the construction of the Te Rapa Section of the Waikato Expressway will create jobs locally and work for local industry as it gears up to support the project. The intention is that most materials, plant and labour involved in the Te Rapa project will be sourced from this region, including much of the aggregate needed to build the road itself.
Mr Wilson says, “The start of construction at Te Rapa demonstrates the impressive progress being made across the whole Waikato Expressway project. The Waikato Expressway is one of the Government’s Roads of National Significance which support economic growth through investing in the essential lead transport infrastructure, which will unlock economic potential for the region”.
The NZTA is committed to completing the whole of the Waikato Expressway in 2019, with many sections completed before that time. The Te Rapa Section will be completed in early 2013.
3 Comments
..This just comes to show that National are putting everything last penny in building more motorways the Te Rapa section is not even part of the Waikato expressway, it will only lead to more uncontrolled urban sprawl and more farmland being gobbled up by industrial development.
This government makes my blood boil someone should put the lot of the against the wall and shot them for all I care. I have had it with them wasting good money on building a bypass of a bypass. They are already proposing to send over $11 billion of our hard earned case one thing. Steven Joyce is the minister of Roads not transport!!!!
194 million for this and they can’t spare 1m for a commuter rail service? This government really does have their heads up their backsides.
this is just out of the world. honestly.