KEY POINTS:
Several years of planning was to end today when a new motorway link opened between Auckland's North Shore and the western districts.
Transit New Zealand said from today motorists for the first time could drive from the North Shore to the western suburbs without having to get off the motorway.
North Shore traffic wanting to get onto the northwestern motorway has had to get off at Cook Street and drive through a congested part of town to get back onto the northwestern motorway.
Another motorway section was also due to open which would allow south bound traffic on the northern motorway to drive to the Ports of Auckland, also without leaving the motorway.
Later this month the reverse sections were to open - from the ports to the north and from the northwestern motorway to the north.
Transit said the new links were a massive engineering feat and whole sections of State Highway 1 had to be rebuilt to fit the new links into the country's busiest motorway.
- NZPA
