NZ Herald was given an exclusive look at the highly anticipated new motorway between Pūhoi and Warkworth as the expected opening date draws near. Video / NZ Herald
The country’s transport agency Waka Kotahi is quietly confident the new $880 million Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway will be open before the end of June.
This follows the revelation that the vast majority of pre-opening tests, including pavement, surfacing and drainage issues, safety audits, RMA conditions, and independent reviews havenot been ticked off.
In response to a written parliamentary question from National’s transport spokesman Simeon Brown, Transport Minister Michael Wood said as of March 15 just 8 of the 117 tests have been satisfied.
Waka Kotahi manager commercial delivery Andrew Robertson. Photo / Jed Bradley
Under a private-public partnership (PPP), the NX2 joint venture between Fletcher and Spanish construction firm Acciona is designing, building, and will operate the new piece of motorway for 25 years.
A spokesman for the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said the timing of the road opening is decided by NX2 once the physical works are complete and all of the contractually agreed safety and quality assurance requirements have been met by NX2.
“Because of the scale and complexity of the road construction and the PPP contract, there are more tests required than usual to ensure that when the road is finished and open it has been built to the agreed standards,” the spokesman said.
“Good progress is being made and Waka Kotahi anticipates that NX2 will be in a position to open the road in the second quarter of 2023.”
The Herald understands NX2 and Waka Kotahi are aiming to open the motorway in June.
National Party transport spokesman Simeon Brown. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Brown said the travelling public is keen to have a much clearer timeframe around the opening of the motorway, particularly given the storm events that have created disruption on the roads and with Easter coming up.
There is building frustration seeing the practical completion of the motorway, said Brown, who suggested Waka Kotahi could repeat the situation at Transmission Gully in Wellington and negotiate an early opening with some of the tests still not completed.
Motorists travelling to Northland for Easter will be relieved to know State Highway 1 over the Brynderwyn Hills will be open, although the road is due to close again after the holiday weekend.
The road will close in both directions from April 17 for two weeks to complete earthworks and drainage installation before permanently reopening the road in May.
The Brynderwyns opened on March 31 in both directions for the first time since Cyclone Gabrielle in February.
The Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway was initially due to open in the summer of 2021/22 and then at Queen’s Birthday Weekend last year - both delays were put down to Covid-19.
Last month, the Herald drove the 18.5km stretch of the new motorway and found it is in a different league to the stretch of SH1 it is replacing.
Motorists got their first experience of the motorway in June last year when Waka Kotahi opened the impressive Arawhiti ki Ōkahu viaduct at the southern end for a short drive before getting off and back on to SH1.
A couple of kilometres up the road at the Pūhoi turnoff, the highway spans a second viaduct before the four-lane motorway begins an undulating and curved path following the natural contours of the land.
Halfway along the route are a spectacular series of steep cuts of Pakiri sedimentary sandstone and siltstone up to 65m high in thin horizontal layers covered in steel mesh.
A small section of the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway has opened to motorists. Photo / Brett Phibbs
The steep cuts stabilise vegetation on top of the hills and give a sense of penetrating through the rock face.
“It was literally moving mountains,” Waka Kotahi national manager of commercial delivery Andrew Robertson told the Herald.
He was referring to three summer seasons of cutting more than 10 million cubic metres of earth and rock and filling a further 5m cu m to level the valley floors for a relatively flat road surface.
At the halfway point sits the steel Moir Hill bridge spanning two of the giant cuts, the steepest stretch of the road, with a third, crawler lane each way for trucks and other slow vehicles.
Moving on from the dramatic cuts in the hillsides comes farmland and a large forestry block scarred by numerous slips from the recent storms and piles of slash in areas that have been harvested.
The new Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway. Photo / Waka Kotahi
A prettier picture emerges towards Warkworth at the 75m long Arawhiti Pua Ngahere (Kauri Eco Viaduct) crossing a stream to a kauri forest and other significant native trees, almost within touching distance of vehicles.
The new stretch of the motorway ends at a roundabout joining up with the existing SH1, north of Warkworth. A private consortium, NX2, is responsible for designing, building, and operating the motorway for 25 years.
South of the roundabout Auckland Transport is putting the finishing touches on the 1.3km Matakana link road, costing $62 million, which avoids Warkworth’s infamous Hill St intersection and is due to open around the same time as the motorway.
