KEY POINTS:
Hillsborough Rd has been reopened to traffic after another bout of major roadworks, but the busy Auckland arterial route faces even greater disruption straight after Christmas.
The western end of the Southwestern Motorway from Queenstown Rd back to Hayr Rd will also be closed from December 27 until January 7, as Transit NZ contractor Fulton Hogan builds a giant roundabout at the intersection with Hillsborough Rd.
Its aim is to create enough traffic-free space in the centre of the roundabout to build over the next two years a diamond interchange between Hillsborough Rd and the $195 million motorway extension being built through Mt Roskill to New Windsor.
The roundabout will be unique in being controlled by traffic lights, and will allow motorists to use the existing connection with the Southwestern Motorway even as the Hillsborough Rd end of the motorway is sunk several metres below the interchange.
It will be dismantled once the interchange is ready, in time for the 4km motorway extension to Maioro St in New Windsor to open early in 2009.
During the roundabout construction, Hillsborough Rd will be closed in both directions between Herd and Carr Rds to its north, and Littlejohn St to its south.
Although the work has been timed to coincide with the Christmas break for many workers, the Southwestern Motorway is expected to remain busy with traffic headed to or from the airport, and Transit is braced for an influx of visitors unfamiliar with Auckland roads.
Traffic heading between the city and Mangere Bridge will be advised to take detours through Onehunga, leaving the on- and off-ramps at Queenstown Rd free for motorists heading to or from western suburbs.
The contractor will be under pressure to complete the roundabout in time for another Fulton Hogan team to return to work on a $1.3 million rebuild of the other end of Hillsborough Rd through Lynfield, for Auckland City Council.
The council opened a 1km section of the road to eastbound traffic on Friday - a week earlier than expected - after more than a fortnight of detours through Mt Roskill.
A council spokeswoman said fair weather had speeded the first stage of the road's reconstruction, but the contractors would be back rebuilding the other side on January 8, closing it again to eastbound traffic.
Although detours appear to have worked well since an initial shambolic morning - when motorists unaware of the project jammed several kilometres of road from Blockhouse Bay to Roskill South - the council hopes to get lucky again with the weather and finish the second stage earlier than a target date of March.
