Main road to Auckland Airport closed overnight next week for roadworks

The main road into Auckland Airport will be closed over five nights next week to replace an overhead gantry known as the Pirate Mast.

George Bolt Memorial Drive will be closed in both directions from Tuesday through to Sunday morning between 8pm and 5am. Detours will be in place to the domestic and international terminals and other areas of the airport.

The road closures will allow workers to remove the Pirate Mast and install three new overhead gantry structures across the road.

The work marks the halfway point of Northern Network, a project to expand and upgrade road access into Auckland Airport along George Bolt Memorial Drive, the main road into the airport from the north.

The airport's general manager of infrastructure, André Lovatt, said work on the Northern Network project closed down in the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic while a review took place of the roading and other infrastructure works.

"It was a good exercise to undertake because it confirmed that the fundamentals of this project still stand strong.

"We are operating in a period of significantly reduced passenger numbers, but we remain confident about our future and we need to ensure our roading network is ready for the return of international air travel," Lovatt said.

The review will see the airport company focusing on priority works, like the widening of George Bolt Memorial Drive, and completing other projects in stages.

The widening of George Bolt Memorial Drive includes high occupancy vehicle lanes with shared pedestrian and cycle paths, and new overhead wayfinding gantries.

"By widening the road, we're increasing its capacity and supporting public-transport options.

"We're also taking the opportunity to carry out these works now to minimise disruption to road users while there are fewer vehicles on the road. It's the same approach we followed for the recent runway maintenance works," Lovatt said.