Pūhoi to Warkworth State Highway 1 motorway: Waka Kotahi video shows dramatic blasting work in building process

It’s 3,2,1 kaboom into the future for our newest motorway - quite literally, according to an explosive new video posted online by our national transport agency.

The spectacular footage of rock blasting work done to build the newly-completed Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway on State Highway 1 north of Auckland has been shared on video-sharing platform TikTok by Waka Kotahi.

The mostly aerial shots show dirt and rocks being blasted into the air across hillsides, passes and strips of virgin roadway in a bid to break rocks and make them easier to excavate, a transport agency social media staffer said in captions over the video.

This screengrab shows one of the controlled explosions that took place in the building of the new Puhoi to Warkworth section of State Highway 1 north of Auckland. Screengrab / Waka Kotahi via TikTok

“It was as cool as it looks”, the staffer said of the footage, which was accompanied by the popular classical version of the medieval Latin Goliardic poem O Fortuna.

“Twelve-metre holes are filled with explosives and boosters before detonation. We did more than 160 of these controlled blasts [and] 2.2 million cubic metres of rock was removed.”

@wakakotahi

Ara Tūhono, the new motorway between Pūhoi to Warkworth, will open very soon. There’s been a huge amount of work on the project, like this rock blasting done when we started building the road a few years back 💥

♬ Carmina Burana - O fortuna - Carl Orff

A lot of the rock was reused as fill across the project, the staffer said.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins cut the ribbon on the $880m motorway yesterday - but the precise time motorists will be able to use it isn’t being made public, so as to avoid traffic disruption.

The Herald understands the motorway will be open to traffic by early next week.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan at the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway opening yesterday. Photo / Dean Purcell

The 18.5km new section of SH1, which has been named Ara Tūhono, has taken more than six years to build by the NX2 joint venture between Fletcher Building and Spanish construction firm Acciona, which under a private-public partnership will operate and maintain the road for 25 years.

Once open, it’s expected to chop 11 minutes off the drive north and provide motorists with a safer journey to the windy and mostly single-lane road it replaces.

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years.