Victoria Park Tunnel Project
When complete the Victoria Park Tunnel Project will relieve some of the congestion in the inner city Auckland area.
The 2.2km project includes a 440m 'cut and cover' type tunnel beneath Victoria Park to carry three lanes of northbound traffic. It also converts the current viaduct to provide four lanes southbound and increases the capacity of St Mary's Bay to five lanes in each direction. It also adds a southbound bus shoulder lane and provision for northbound bus priority. When the project is complete, southbound motorists will be able to stay in the same lane from the Harbour Bridge to the city; the Southern Motorway or the Northern motorway. This removes the need for difficult and dangerous merging and lane-changing through St Mary's Bay.
Higgins Role
Alliance Partner with NZTA, Fletcher Construction, Beca Infrastructure and Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB). Higgins' role is to provide all the necessary resource and skill to deliver on the pavement construction and traffic management activities.
Current Higgins Activity
Over the Christmas / New Year period Higgins are programmed to complete tie-in works to the Victoria Park Viaduct which will allow the movement of southbound traffic through St Marys Bay into the final alignment. This traffic switch is programmed for Monday 9th January 2012. There will also be two asphalt paving crews working over the Christmas / New Year to take advantage of lower traffic volumes during this period.
In the New Year, Higgins has an intensive asphalt paving programme to complete through to the end of the project. This programme requires numerous night closures on the motorway system involving detailed coordination with other NZTA project on the Auckland motorway system.
