SH1 Papakura to Drury

Project newsletter

19 March 2026

A morepork's eye view of the bridge demolition.

Night lights and big machinery

In a precise overnight operation on Saturday 14 February, the SH1 Papakura to Drury (P2D) team shut down Auckland's Southern Motorway between Papakura and Drury to demolish the Bremner Road bridge over SH1.

Drawing on the success of the May 2022 demolition of the Park Estate Road overbridge around 2.3km to the north, Fulton Hogan, Nikau Contractors and key subcontractors delivered a "super shift" to safely remove the bridge and ensure SH1 would be clear for travellers the following morning.

Given a 14-hour motorway closure from 7:30pm on Saturday night to 9:30am on the Sunday morning, the bridge demolition was meticulously planned down to 15-minute intervals. Component tasks included:

• closing the motorway and ramps
• removing safety barriers and guardrails
• laying heavy cloth and ≈590t (tonne) of crushed concrete under the bridge to protect the motorway lanes from damage
• demolishing the bridge using four 50t excavators, supported by two 20t excavators
• removing almost 500t of concrete and reinforcing steel
• removing the protective layer and reinstating barriers and guardrails
• a final sweep before SH1 reopened over an hour ahead of schedule.

From the traffic management teams who managed the motorway from closure to reopening, to the specialist barrier team, excavator operators, truck drivers and engineers, this was a massive, coordinated effort that safely and efficiently delivered this bridge demolition.

The P2D team had opted for a 'hard and fast' approach to achieve this milestone in a single, extended, night shift to reduce overall disruption. The alternative option had been to remove the bridge by cutting it down in small sections over multiple nightshifts, which would have had a cumulatively greater impact for neighbours within hearing distance and the travelling public, and used more resources.

Fulton Hogan's Structures Construction Manager Kirsty McVicar reflected, "It was a very exciting night, with a complex job delivered extremely well by the team who had been planning down to the very last detail for the many months prior. This was a collective effort across many of our teams and subcontractors, who all went over and above to ensure everything ran smoothly and safely on the night. It was a great feeling all pitching in for the final sweep and checks before re-opening the motorway ahead of schedule in the morning. I reckon most of the team agreed it really was a fantastic way to spend Valentines Day!"

To see our video showcasing the bridge demolition, click here

To view timelapse footage of the bridge demolition, click here

Clearing and removing the bridge off-site the same night, straight to recycling stations.

Sustainability

Our commitment to sustainability is demonstrated by the level of recycling and reuse achieved during the demolition of the Bremner Road bridge.

To begin, the bridge was closed a week early so the existing asphalt surface could be milled off the road. Recycled asphalt makes up to 30% of new asphalt, and removing it also ensured there would be no contamination of the concrete and reinforcing steel that we planned to recycle when the bridge was demolished.

To protect the motorway lanes beneath the bridge being demolished, we first laid down ≈590t (tonne) of crushed concrete to absorb any impact of falling materials. Only recycled crushed concrete was used, some of which came from the earlier Park Estate Road bridge demolition. While an asphalt crew was on standby if needed to repair any damage in the morning, no remedial work was required.

Demolishing a bridge quickly generates airborne dust and sediment. To control this on the night, we used multiple water misting fans throughout the demolition and removal of the 'downed' material. The fans used ≈10,000 litres of rainwater harvested on-site from nearby site compound roofs.

The entire bridge structure, comprising ≈498t of concrete and steel, was loaded onto trucks and transported away on demo night to recycling stations in South Auckland and the Waikato, where 100% of the concrete and steel will be separated and recycled.

Finally, a single-night demolition was a more sustainable method for achieving this milestone, significantly reducing fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions over the alternative 'piece by piece' removal option.

A specialist team including 20 welders cutover the 1200mm Waikato watermain to its new alignment. Above left: works underway at the northern end of the cutover. Above right: works nearing completion at the southern end.

Waikato 1 watermain cutover achieved with precision

While much of Auckland was enjoying their summer holidays, another significant piece of work was unfolding near Drury Interchange. Over three days during the 2025 Christmas-New Year period, teams from Fulton Hogan, Watercare, March Cato and Olsen Welding carried out a highly complex shutdown and cutover of Watercare's critical Waikato 1 watermain.

The existing Waikato pipeline had been located directly under the planned new alignment of SH1, at Flanagan Road just south of Drury Interchange, and needed to be moved. Earlier during 2025, a 375-metre section of new 1200mm watermain had been laid behind a large new retaining wall completed earlier that year. However, the cutover of water from the old alignment into the new pipe needed to wait until late December when Auckland’s water demand was at its lowest, with businesses and industries closed for the holidays and many residents away.

This cutover was another important milestone for the project, being the culmination of more than 18 months of planning, years of design development, and coordination between the P2D project and Watercare.

The Waikato 1 watermain supplies around a third of Auckland's daily drinking water. Shutting it down, even for a short period, carried enormous risk. Ensuring Aucklanders had enough water while the old pipe was cut out and the new pipe connected required planning and teamwork down to the minute.

All the work that had gone on before resulted in the site team finishing the critical cutover three hours ahead of schedule and delivering the shutdown safely, efficiently, and without disruption to the city's water supply. A shutdown of this magnitude is unlikely to occur again until the Waikato 2 watermain is operational in an estimated 8 years' time.

Our works to realign the southern end of Flanagan Road and widen SH1 south of Drury Interchange have now moved into a new phase with this milestone having been achieved.

Whakapā mai | Contact us

For further information regarding the project, please contact our team on:

• P: 0800 796 796
• E: p2b@nzta.govt.nz
• W: www.nzta.govt.nz/p2b

You can also visit our project site office at 25 Tegal Road, Drury, between 8am and 5pm on normal business days.

Kind regards | Ngā mihi
The SH1 Papakura to Drury team