Gecko adds flash of colour toKhyber Pass viaduct

The gecko sculpture brightens the gloom beneath the Khyber Pass viaduct. Picture / Bruce Jarvis

An eight-metre gecko now adds a spot of colour to the drabness under Auckland's Khyber Pass viaduct.

The sculpture was unveiled last week by Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard and Transport Minister Pete Hodgson to mark the official opening of the first stage of the Central Motorway Junction project.

The project, which provides extra lanes southbound from Symonds St to Gillies Ave and northbound from Gillies Ave to Khyber Pass, is intended make travel easier and quicker for the 200,000 road users who pass through the area every day.

The gecko is believed by Maori to provide guardianship and safe passage.

The $25,000 sculpture enhances a dark and featureless corner between the Khyber Pass onramp and offramp.

It is made from a polystyrene mould covered with 51,000 mosaic tiles and took three months to build.

This stage of the Spaghetti Junction improvements began in 2002, and was completed this month at a cost of $56 million.

It came in on time and on budget, no small feat for an upgrade that included, along with extra lanes and structural improvements to motorway overpasses, new lighting and stormwater systems.

Transit chief executive Rick van Barneveld congratulated the management team for completing a job that required them to build new lanes while keeping the traffic moving on the motorway.

Stage two, due to be completed in 2006, will link the Northwestern and Northern Motorways, and the Northern Motorway and the port, via Grafton Gully.