Minister of Transport marks project milestone
Southern Motorway opens new lanes in time for Christmas holiday traffic
Motorists on the Southern Motorway (SH1) will enjoy improved traffic flow as the Southern Corridor Improvements (SCI) project delivered the final sections of extra lanes this week. The Minister of Transport, the Hon Phil Twyford, marked the opening of the extra lanes on Thursday 19 December, celebrating a significant milestone for the project.
The Minister acknowledged the Southern Motorway as the main route in and out of New Zealand’s biggest city, with improved traffic flow and eased bottlenecks a big plus for more than 95,000 vehicles that use it every day.
Automobile Association (AA) spokesperson Barney Irvine said early traffic measurements undertaken by the AA on the extra southbound lanes showed a time saving of more than six minutes per journey.
“Added up and multiplied across two-way journeys, some commuters can look forward to saving an hour a week or nearly 60 hours a year,” he said.
The $317m project, which started in October 2015, has now widened the motorway by an additional lane southbound between the SH20/SH1 connection and the Papakura interchange, and an additional lane northbound between Papakura and Takanini. Along the way, the SCI team has built 24 bridges, 22 retaining walls and 4.4km of new noise walls.
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