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Greenhill Interchange connects the Hamilton section of the Waikato Expressway to the city via Pardoa Boulevard.

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September 2019

Completion is in sight for two of the remaining three sections of the Waikato Expressway, with the Longswamp section opening to traffic on all four lanes later this year and the Huntly section opening early next year.
These are two very different work sites, with Longswamp seeing the existing two and three-lane highway widened to four, with side and central barriers. Traffic will be switched on and off the new lanes under speed restrictions while finishing works continue, including final asphalting.
Huntly is a 15km greenfields project and will open fully completed, with traffic on all lanes at 100km/h within days of the ribbon-cutting and public access day.
The Hamilton project – the biggest of all the sections – has moved past the halfway stage with the focus shifting from earthmoving and drainage to completing bridges and ramping up pavement construction. The Hamilton completion date is late 2021.

Three to go
Longswamp:
5.9km SH1 widening
Between Te Kauwhata and Hampton Downs interchanges.
Opening late 2019
Huntly: 15.2km greenfields
Between Ohinewai and Ngaruawahia sections
Opening early 2020
Hamilton: 22km greenfields
Between Ngaruawahia and Cambridge sections
Opening late 2021

For more expressway information go to www.nzta.govt.nz/waikatoexpressway where you can also sign up for emailed section updates. Or like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/waikatoexpressway to get progress news and posts most days.

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Longswamp
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Chipsealing continues for the last of the north-bound lanes near Hampton Downs this week.

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Longswamp

We expect to have traffic on all four lanes in December when the south-bound lanes will have their final surface of thick asphalt.
The north-bound lanes will not get the final surface of Stone Mastic Asphalt until February-March so there will need to be some lane shifts and speed restrictions later in the summer while that work is done.
The 5.9km Longswamp section has involved widening the existing SH1 route and extending local road networks, including a connecting bridge over the expressway.
Construction started in early 2017 on building the south-bound lanes first.
With traffic running on those new lanes, earthworks, drainage and road building have  been under way on the new north-bound lanes for the past year.
The whole site remains a construction zone until completion, so take care and please follow the 70km/h speed limit.
Read the most recent update, and a graphic showing the local road connections, here

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The Gordonton Road Interchange is where Huntly section meets the completed Ngaruawahia section.

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Huntly

Road construction and bridge building is advancing on schedule right along the 15km route.
There are nine bridges on the Huntly section, with four taking local traffic over the expressway. The last one to be completed was at Orini Road which has recently opened to traffic.
Road building has been in full swing all year, using the Hi-Lab pavement system where layers of rock are built up and stabilised ahead of a final asphalt surface.
Median and side barriers are starting to be installed and there’s still a few hundred thousand plants to get in the ground this spring – bringing the total to 1.3 million.
Some of those plants have gone in around the new wetland created south of Lake Kimihia which is already proving popular with wildlife. Last month a kotuku or white heron stopped in for a few days, followed by a rare royal spoonbill a few days later (pictured below).
The Te Iringa Lagoon has also benefited from planting and track-making, and a carpark is being built to give access to the lagoon and adjoining DOC scientific reserve bush.
This area will have a large pou in place to mark its cultural significance – as do other sites where pou, gateways and palisades will appear. 
The lagoon area is where the project team will celebrate completion early next year. A full day of public access to the whole 15km is planned with a date and activities to be confirmed later in the year.
You can read the latest Huntly project update here
You can get those updates direct to your inbox by signing up on the website www.nzta.govt.nz/huntly
View the latest video flyover on the website, under the videos tab.

People may have noticed a service centre is being built on the western side of the Gordonton Interchange. This is a private development and not part of the expressway project.

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Resolution Interchange connects Hamilton's northern suburbs to the expressway.

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Hamilton

While most of the 22km Hamilton section is being built in a “greenfields” environment away from other traffic, the connection at Tamahere is different –  with 2km of SH1 included in the construction zone.
The project team need room to build the four-lane highway and in early July all SH1 traffic was switched on to what will be the Hamilton off-ramp.
This creates the space needed for road-building under the East West Link Bridge and beyond.
This traffic switch required a combined entrance on and off the highway for Cherry Lane and Bollard Road traffic.
There will be further tweaks to the road layout there over the next two years prior to completion, including a short south-bound detour using the off and on-ramps at the Tamahere Interchange.
The project team are working very hard to make all this happen and still get 50,000-plus vehicles through the site every day.
Please note the 50km/h speed restriction and drive with care.
Meanwhile bridge building and road-building continue right along the route.
We’re building a special type of road pavement called Hi-Lab. This includes large rock mixed with fine gravel, sand and cement to bind it in place.
Earthworks are largely complete in the northern and central areas but continue in the south.
The Hamilton section has five points of entry and exit. There are three full diamond interchanges at Ruakura, Greenhill and Resolution Drive so traffic can come and go from any direction.
The Southern and Northern interchanges have different configurations and you can view those on our website or call into the visitor centre, Monday to Friday, at Ryburn Road, signposted off Ruakura Road, to view the models.
Horsham Downs Road remains closed while we build the final local road bridge. Traffic is expected to be crossing the new bridge by the end of the year. 
The annual project open day will be held on Saturday 16 November this year when we expect to be able to bus people along a good portion of the expressway route. 
There are lots of resources on the website www.nzta.govt.nz/hamilton including video updates and flyovers, and a special tab for Southern Interchange news.
You can sign up for monthly updates and the quarterly Project Updates on the website. Read the latest one here

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Te Rapa and Ngaruawahia remedial works

Remedial works on both the Te Rapa and Ngaruawahia sections this year ensured the expressway remained safe and up to required standards over winter.
This work was part of a staged approach aimed at finding a solution to the rutting issues on the Te Rapa and Ngaruawahia sections which opened in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
The work so far has involved water-proof sealing, filling in any depressions, and installing moisture sensors to assist with investigations into the cause of the failure and long-term solution.
The current temporary seal will not be the permanent surface – once the pavement performance is proven or the need for further rehabilitation is required and carried out, then a low-noise asphalt surface will be applied. 
Contractors also did a full pavement repair on an at-risk 1km section of the south-bound lanes (just south of Kainui Bridge) of the Ngaruawahia section. 
You can read more about what’s happening on these sections here

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More information

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For more information on the Waikato Expressway, contact us at waikatoexpressway@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/waikato-expressway

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