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Mt Wellington Highway bridge widened for traffic
MEDIA RELEASE
10 April
2012
Mt Wellington Highway bridge widened for
traffic
A wider Mt Wellington Highway bridge was opened to full traffic in the weekend after more than three months of rebuild works.
The 7m wider bridge offers two additional lanes on the bridge on Mt Wellington Highway - one of the busiest roads in Auckland, providing a vital link to SH1 and Mt Wellington to the North and Otahuhu to the South.
The existing bridge was partially closed to traffic just after Christmas so that KiwiRail could raise the bridge to allow clearance for overhead wires underneath to power Auckland’s future electric trains. The existing bridge consisted of two structures – main bridge was constructed in 1924, with three lanes being added in 1993.
KiwiRail and its contractor, Fulton Hogan, worked hard to complete the bridge works while keeping traffic moving, says Nick French, KiwiRail’s project director.
“It was challenging to work in a restricted site with heavy traffic moving in both directions.
The new bridge has increased the existing 30m span by 7m, allowing space underneath for the construction of a third railway line in the future. The need to re-build the bridge by KiwiRail also presented an opportunity for Auckland Transport to provide greater capacity by way of wider vehicle lanes and improvements for pedestrian access.
"The new bridge provides three southbound and four northbound traffic lanes for vehicles. A 1.2m wide flush median is also added for safety.”
This is one of the four road bridges and five pedestrian bridges that have been rebuilt this year as part of the Auckland electrification project's clearance works. While Morrin Road bridge was successfully completed earlier this year, KiwiRail continues to work on the rail over-bridge at Orakei Road with two-way traffic maintained. The remainder of Orakei Road bridge was demolished over the Easter weekend, and the new bridge is on track for completion in July. Auckland Transport is rebuilding the Mountain Road bridge as part of its AMETI project.
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