The NZ Transport Agency will close State Highway 1 between the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the Central Motorway Junction on five consecutive nights starting on Sunday 12 December for work associated with the Victoria Park Tunnel project.
The motorway will be closed between approximately 10.30pm and 5am. The Fanshawe Street motorway on ramp, a key exit from the central business district for traffic going north, will also close.
State Highways Manager for Auckland and Northland, Tommy Parker, says a major motorway sign gantry will be installed in St Marys Bay during Sunday night's closure. On the following nights signs will be shifted from two existing gantries, which will then be removed next Wednesday and Thursday nights.
He says the work is critical to the Victoria Park Tunnel project's aim to remove the last major traffic bottleneck on Auckland's central motorway system. Through St Marys Bay, the motorway is being widened by one lane in each direction. There will also be a dedicated citybound bus lane.
"The gantry is essential to the safe operation of the motorway, particularly approaching and leaving the harbour bridge," he says.
During the nightly closures, southbound traffic will be required to leave the motorway at the Shelly Beach Road off ramp and rejoin it at Hobson Street. Northbound traffic will be required to leave the motorway at Nelson Street and detour to the Curran Street on ramp.
Traffic leaving the central business district to go north will be diverted from the Fanshawe Street on ramp to Curran Street in Ponsonby.
