All northbound lanes will be closed at night, meaning traffic will either have to reach the bridge from Curran St in Herne Bay or use the Upper Harbour route to Albany.
Mr Parker said arterial routes around the motorways were likely to become heavily congested, so the Transport Agency was advising people to allow plenty of extra time.
"We regret the disruption and will do everything we can to minimise its impact, but it is absolutely necessary to complete the tunnel work so that we can start delivering the benefits of the Vic Park project to drivers."
Meanwhile, a final round of audits to test the tunnel's operational and safety features - including a high-powered water deluge system shown to journalists yesterday - is almost complete in time for almost 60,000 vehicles a day to start using it.
Two tunnel lanes will open to traffic on Monday.
The agency does not want to increase capacity by making the third lane available until March, when it will have completed a $406 million programme of motorway improvements from Spaghetti Junction to the harbour bridge.
Its next steps include bringing the bridge's moveable lane barrier back to Fanshawe St for better management of a widened motorway section north of the tunnel.
The motorway viaduct over Victoria Park also has to be reconfigured to carry four lanes of southbound vehicles, thereby clearing one of Auckland's worst bottlenecks.
All the tunnel operating systems will be run from the Transport Agency's traffic management centre at Smales Farm in Takapuna, with back-up equipment above Victoria Park.
Two fireproof motor control rooms have been built inside the tunnel, next to an escape passage able to withstand an inferno burning at up to 1350C for two hours.
A fire control building has been built in Victoria Park with connections to the city water supply so it can replenish fire engines. It will also be able to pump foam into the tunnel.
That is in addition to the deluge system, which will receive up to 250 tonnes of water in an hour from a gravity-fed tank in Franklin Rd.
Ten fireproof escape doors have been built between the tunnel and the escape passage and cameras will send images to the Smales Farm centre, which also controls the Northern Gateway toll road tunnels and will from 2016 run the Waterview tunnels.
Weekend work
* Expect congestion as the new Victoria Park tunnel is linked to the motorway network this weekend
* Northbound links from State Highway 16 and the port to SH1 will be closed all weekend from 10pm tomorrow
* Only one northbound motorway lane will be open during daylight hours between Spaghetti Junction and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
* All northbound lanes will be closed at night
* Roads should be back to normal by 5am Monday.
More information
www.nzta.govt.nz
