Bridge eases trips in west

Almost 40,000 vehicles a day have started using a bridge at the top end of Auckland's Northwestern Motorway, as part of a $220 million link in the region's western ring route.

The 60m bridge carries Hobsonville Rd across the motorway, which will ultimately be connected to the new Upper Harbour link by a flyover immediately to the north.

Traffic gained access to the Hobsonville Rd bridge on Sunday after workers dismantled a large roundabout previously used to keep 38,000 vehicles a day away from the bridge construction site in the middle.

The flyover to the north of the bridge is designed to divert traffic seamlessly to the four-lane Upper Harbour motorway from a 2.2km two-lane extension of State Highway 16 to Brigham Creek Rd.

Heb Construction will build five more bridges before completing the project, leaving the Waterview Connection as the only remaining link to be provided for the 48km western ring route.