Work on the central median at Rosedale Road Bridge

What’s been happening in the central median?

In mid-July, we moved the SH1 southbound traffic lanes between Greville Road and Constellation Drive to the east, onto the newly widened southbound traffic lanes so that we could start work in the central median.

Over the coming months, work in this area will include replacement of the Rosedale Road motorway bridge as well as the piling, roof construction and excavation of the SH1 to SH18 underpass.  In addition, moving the work area to the central median allows us to complete multiple drainage crossings by connecting drainage lines laid during earlier phases of SH1 widening.  After that, we’ll turn our attention to the work which needs to be completed above ground such as constructing   pavement layers and laying asphalt, construction of the concrete barrier as well as installation of the light poles and overhead gantry. 

As our team need to enter and exit the work area directly from the motorway live lanes, this is a significant safety risk so the speed limit has been temporarily reduced to 80km per hour southbound from Greville interchange through to Constellation interchange for the duration of work. By lowering the speed limit, it will not only help keep drivers safe but our team as well.

Left: Josh (Site Engineer) and Paul (Foreman) on site as they were setting up the ventilation system. Right: Underpass excavation in full swing

Underpass update

The team working on the underpass are tackling this challenge from all sides, literally.

In the central section, with the shift to being able to work from the motorway median we’ve been continuing with piling for the underpass walls and roof. On the western side, we’re busy building the retaining walls which will form the sides of the underpass while on the eastern side, we’ve already started to excavate some of the material. Known by the team as the ‘big dig’, phase one is currently underway and 2,149m³ of material has already been excavated with another 2,900m³ to go. In total, 16,000m³ of material will be excavated across three phases.

We caught up with Josh and Paul who have been keeping us updated as we can’t go to this area of site for safety reasons.

“Before we could start any excavation, we had to set up a ventilation system. This was really important as we have to ensure that all the dirty air which has a higher concentration of carbon monoxide in it is removed for the safety of the team working in the underpass” says Paul.

The NCI team

Celebrating our four year anniversary

Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of our people, in early August we completed 3.5 million work hours since construction began.

With the milestone achieved just before our fourth anniversary, the timing couldn’t have been better and was certainly an opportunity to get together and celebrate.

“This is one of Auckland’s largest infrastructure projects under construction and to have achieved this number of hours in such a short timeframe whilst ensuring that our team go home safe at the end of each day is fantastic,” says Simon Paton, Waka Kotahi Project Manager.

“To help put into perspective just how hard the team has worked, 3.5 million hours is the equivalent of nearly 400 years.”

More information

For more information on the Auckland Northern Corridor project, contact us on 0800 NCI Project (0800 624 776) or at northerncorridor@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/nci