Construction updates

Final motorway surfacing underway

25 January 2012

The first section of high quality asphalt went down in St Marys Bay last week, another milestone for the project. The final surfacing continues this week on the southbound lanes, at the rate of approximately 100 metres a night.

Next Tuesday night (31 January) the work switches to the northbound lanes, where it will continue every Sunday to Thursday night until the end of February (weather permitting). It will then switch back to the southbound lanes.

All paving on the project is due to be completed by Easter.

Loop cutting follows paving

The final surfacing is not the last of the potentially disruptive night works. As the paving progresses, a team will follow to cut communication loops into the motorway surface.

The loops are essentially traffic counters, which feed information about traffic flows and vehicle numbers back to the NZTA’s traffic operations centre at Smales Farm in Takapuna. They enable the NZTA to monitor and manage traffic flows.

Thirty-three loops are required over the length of the project. Each requires two nights of cutting, which means the entire programme will take two months to complete.

There will be a loop cutting trial over two nights next week and the programme begins in earnest in mid-February. All loop cutting on northbound lanes should be finished by 12 March, the target date for opening the third lane in the tunnel and other northbound motorway improvements.

Loop cutting will then follow the final paving on the southbound lanes. It is due to be completed in mid-April.

The other big focus: the moveable lane barrier

Night work to extend the moveable lane barrier from the harbour bridge to Fanshawe Street will be underway in the first two weeks of March. In the first week our teams will be placing barriers, starting at the Southern end and working toward the bridge. In the second week, the machine will be trialled.

At the southern end

Some finishing work is required at the southern end of the project, on the approach to the tunnel, before the third tunnel lane is opened. This is mainly night work involving installing pre-cast barriers and panels and some final paving in a small area.

Some paving will be done in mid-February but most of it will happen in the first half of March.

Also at the southern end of the project, we are disestablishing the site office in Wilkins Street and completing the final landscaping in the area between Napier Street and Weld Street in March. This will occur during normal daytime working hours.

Jacobs Ladder Footbridge

Work on the footbridge is on hold awaiting cladding panels. Unfortunately this also means we cannot open the last section of the St Marys Bay walkway at the moment.

In the meantime, work continues on the lift shaft that provides access to the footbridge from Westhaven Drive.

Opening up the park

In early February we hope to be able to open the section of Victoria Park that is still fenced off. This is the area around the southern egress structure for the tunnel.

The structure has a light box facing the end of Franklin Road. This will be lit at night from early February.

Anniversary Weekend

There will be no work on the project over the coming long weekend, which is the Auckland Anniversary Weekend. However, we remind you that the northbound lanes of the Newmarket Viaduct will be closed between 5pm on Saturday and 8am on Monday.

This edition’s photograph

The new roof of the Rob Roy Hotel, under the plastic wrapping that currently surrounds the building.

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Counting down to the finish

11 January 2012

A happy New Year and a big thank-you to our neighbours for their patience and understanding while we completed a significant amount of work over the holiday period. As a result we were able to open the Victoria Park flyover in its new layout, the additional traffic lane through St Marys Bay and the bus-only shoulder lane on the approach to the Fanshawe Street off-ramp on Monday.

This major milestone for the project and for our client, the NZ Transport Agency, removes the major bottleneck for southbound traffic at Victoria Park. And so far it is going well - so well, in fact, that one of our workers from the North Shore is complaining that he no longer has time to drink his coffee on his drive to work.

Also over the holiday period we completed 80 per cent of the saw-cutting to install the cable that will guide the moveable lane barrier through St Marys Bay. We completed most of the resurfacing at the intersection of Franklin Road and Victoria Street West and on Beaumont Street. And we made significant progress on the internal refurbishment of the Rob Roy Hotel.

What’s still to be done?

The physical works will be substantially completed in early March. This includes:

• Opening the additional motorway capacity northbound, including the third lane in the tunnel and the peak-time auxiliary lane on the Fanshawe Street on-ramp
• Completing the Jacobs Ladder footbridge which will reconnect St Marys Bay to the harbour
• Completing pavement improvements and landscaping in and around the reinstated Victoria Park
• Refurbishment of the first floor of the Rob Roy Hotel, which is being leased by the NZTA as office accommodation
• Completing the new plaza in front of the Rob Roy
• The final surfacing of the motorway northbound and most of the southbound with high-quality open graded porous asphalt (OGPA)
• Completing the garage under the flyover (northern end) for the moveable lane barrier machine OGPA surfacing will continue into March on the southbound lanes.

Night works coming up:

Victoria St/Franklin Rd: Tomorrow (12 January) and on Sunday (15 January) communication loops will be cut into the roadway at two locations close to Beaumont Apartments. We aim to do the noisy sawcutting behind screens to reduce disruption and to have it completed by midnight. The loops are urgently needed to enable the Auckland Council to monitor and manage traffic flows.

Southbound, Victoria Park flyover to Wellington St: Three weeks of work are required to remove crash cushions and replace them with pre-cast barriers. There will also be excavation works in some areas which require tidy-up paving.

St Marys Bay: Paving works begin again through St Mary’s Bay starting this Sunday (15 January). We will reach a milestone when we begin to lay the final OGPA surfacing layer through SMB starting later next week. The works will continue right through January.

Dayworks around local roads:

Fanshawe St/Beaumont St Footpaths: Excavation and installation of ducting in the footpaths along both Fanshawe Street and Beaumont will be done over the next few weeks. There will be early starts (5am) on Fanshawe St due to a requirement for an early finish. Work on the Beaumont Street footpath duct will be during normal working hours, with the footpath diverted where required. The works will start next week (16 January) and will take approximately two weeks.

Victoria Street West/Beaumont St footpaths:
As mentioned above footpath pavement improvements around the reinstated Victoria Park will be occurring during January. This involves installing new bollards over the next two weeks, with new pavement programmed for the last two weeks of January. Footpaths will be diverted during the paving.

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Busy post Christmas work schedule

16 December 2011

While VPT officially goes on leave next Thursday (22 December), many of us will be back at work immediately after Christmas. A very full work programme is planned to get us to our next major milestone, the release of all southbound capacity improvements in early January. This will include opening the additional southbound traffic lane through St Marys Bay, the citybound bus lane and the Victoria Park flyover in its final layout.

Target date for the opening is 9 January. However, much of the work required is weather dependent. A warm, rain-free holiday period is therefore as important to us as it will be to you.

Best wishes for a safe, fine, and Merry Christmas from the Victoria Park Tunnel Team.

Walkway opening next week

There’s good news for the many residents who have been asking when they can access the new walkway at the bottom of the St Marys Bay cliffs. Subject to Auckland Council approval, the walkway will open next Thursday – in time for walking off Christmas excesses!

The St Marys Bay Reserve will also open next week after a two-year closure for work associated with VPT.

Both the walkway and the reserve are Auckland Council land, which has been landscaped to the council’s specification. This has included extensive planting, using natives.

The walkway extends from Beaumont Street to Point Erin and is, for most of its length, protected from motorway noise and fumes by the transparent noise barrier.

It connects to Shelly Beach Road, St Marys Road via the St Marys Bay Reserve, and Waitemata Street via the Jacobs Ladder staircase. In March, when the Jacobs Ladder foot bridge is completed, it will also connect to Westhaven Drive.

Update on paving through St Marys Bay

In the last construction update we told you there were significant paving works to be undertaken at nights on both the north and south carriageways through St Mary’s Bay. The work is progressing well and much of it has been completed.

Paving is scheduled to continue over the Christmas/New Year period (with the exception of 23, 24, 25 and 30 December, New Years Eve and 1 January) to enable us to open all the southbound improvements – including the flyover in its new layout. However, the wet weather is putting the programme under pressure. If it continues, a decision to delay the scheduled 9 January “openings” may be required.

Weather permitting, the paving next week (18 December – 22 December) will be around Wellington Street and on the Fanshawe Street motorway on ramp, with two nights on each.

The following week, the team returns to work on Boxing Day to complete four nights (26 – 29 December) of paving on the northbound carriageway through the St Marys Bay area. Starting on the night of 2 January there will then be five nights of paving on both northbound and the southbound carriageways through St Marys Bay.

Other Christmas works

Other work is also needed to achieve the southbound switch and open the full capacity of the Victoria Park flyover in early January.

Others will take advantage of lower traffic volumes over the holiday period. They are:

Franklin Road/Victoria Street

There will be daytime work between 28 December and 30 December to replace roadside kerbing. The roads will remain open, although shoulder closures may be in place.

From 2 to 4 January, lower Franklin Road and Victoria Street will be resurfaced during the day. Franklin Road will be closed between Scotland Street and Victoria Street on 3 and 4 January. Victoria Street will be reduced to one lane in each direction on all three days.

As usual we will maintain access to the New World carpark and residences in lower Franklin Road.

Union Street

Union Street will be closed from Victoria Street West to Drake Street from 28 to midday 31 December while new granite kerbs are built. The work will be during normal working hours, but the closure will remain overnight to allow concrete to set.

The entrance to Union Street will be closed on 3 January while Victoria Street is being resurfaced.

Rob Roy Hotel and plaza

The Rob Roy team will be working over the Christmas and New Year breaks, taking statutory holidays off only. The team will be busy working inside the building on its renovation during this time.

Beaumont Street paving

Paving works which include milling the existing surface and resurfacing will be from 29 to 30 December during normal daytime working hours. One lane in each direction will remain open at all times.

Curran Street

The Auckland Motorway Alliance will close the Curran Street motorway on ramp from 5am on Monday 26 December (Boxing Day) until Sunday 8 January while it resurfaces the northbound clip-on lanes on the harbour bridge.

We will take advantage of the closure to complete paving on Curran Street. This will be mainly night-time work.

SH1 Motorway northbound

Full closures of SH1 northbound through the tunnel will be in place most nights from 26 December to 9 January, except on statutory holidays. Fanshawe Street on-ramp will remain open.

The tunnel closure is to enable the motorway through St Marys Bay to be reduced to one lane so that critical paving and the sawcutting for the moveable lane barrier (discussed later in this update) can proceed.

SH1 Motorway southbound

From 26 December to 10 January there will be full night-time closures of the southbound motorway and partial closures during the day, with other closures to follow later in January. More information about these will be provided closer to the time.

These closures are for a wide range of work that is critical to achieving our 9 January milestone.

The work includes:

• Forming concrete barriers at the south end of the flyover. This involves a special machine and is mainly daytime work
• Breaking out existing barriers and installing new crash cushions
• Installation of gantries and gantry signs
• Drainage works
• Paving
• Traffic Switches

Moveable Lane Barrier Works

Preparations are underway to extend the moveable lane barrier on the harbour bridge to the Fanshawe Street motorway on ramp. The barrier will operate a peak-time northbound lane through St Marys Bay, so that the northbound lane configuration on the motorway matches that on the bridge. It includes a peak-time on ramp lane for traffic leaving the CBD.

A new garage for the moveable lane barrier machine is under construction, under the northern end of the Victoria Park flyover.

Over the holiday period, four cuts will be made on the fast lanes of the northbound carriageway throughout St Mary’s Bay. This is for a cable required for the operation of moveable lane barrier.

Sawcutting will be at night next week (18 – 22 December), moving to day shifts for the following week (26 – 30 December).
The final week of sawcutting will be 2 – 8 January, with the work done at night.

Custom made noise screening specifically for these works will in place and every effort made to minimise disruption to affected residents in cliff edge properties through St Mary’s Bay.

Noise from holiday work

As we have described, there is a significant volume of work that we are aiming to get through in the upcoming weeks.

We have been working closely with the council and community liaison group regarding the noise that may be generated from these works, and will be implementing a range of measures in order to minimise the disruption to surrounding residents as much as is possible.

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Big push to complete southbound upgrade

1 December 2011

Significant night work on the motorway over the next few weeks is aimed at ensuring we are ready for the final southbound switch in early January. The switch, targeted for Monday 9 January, will release all new southbound motorway capacity. This includes opening the Victoria Park flyover in its new layout.

This week (28 November – 1 December), the southbound lanes of the motorway have been closed at night, with diversions through local roads to accommodate this.

Full southbound and northbound motorway closures will be in place next week (Sunday 4 to Thursday 8 December) with the exception of Monday 5 December when motorway closures are in place for the Newmarket Viaduct project. The northbound closures are to allow critical milling and paving works while the outhbound closures will be for drainage and gantry works. The closures will be in place from 10.30pm.

A full southbound closure will also be in place the following week (Sunday 11 December – Thursday 15 December) to once again accommodate drainage and paving works from 10.30pm each night.

Northbound motorway closures will also be in place for paving but with one lane operational at all times.

Paving progress through St Marys Bay

As mentioned above – a number of SH1 motorway closures will be in place over the next few weeks to accommodate paving works through St Marys Bay. These works can only occur at night whilst closures and therefore room to work are in place.

The focus is on southbound lanes near the harbour bridge this week. The milling and paving works will then move to the northbound lanes through St Marys Bay for two weeks in early December.

This will particularly affect residents in cliff edge properties on the north end of Ring Tce, Amiria St and Shelly Beach Rd.

All paving works are weather dependant and rain could cause delays. Every effort will be made to keep the noise from these works to a minimum.

Work at the tunnel

With the tunnel open, there’s little work in the tunnel zone. The exception is some saw cutting at the entrance and exit to install some traffic counting cables in the pavement. This maybe noisy for residents and will take a few nights from Tuesday 6th December.

South of the tunnel, the drainage works we informed you of in the last update will continue into the first few weeks of December on the old northbound lanes between Wellington Street and the flyover.

Refurbishment of the Rob Roy Hotel is progressing well. The building has been shrink wrapped to keep it weatherproof while its roof is replaced and you will soon see it display a bit of Christmas cheer.

NZTA announcement regarding Wellington Street on-ramp

The NZ Transport Agency has deferred a decision on re-opening the Wellington Street on-ramp until after the Victoria Park Tunnel Project is completed next year. The NZTA’s State Highways Manager for Auckland and Northland, Tommy Parker, says while the on-ramp was due to re-open this month, the agency has opted to continue the closure while only two of the Victoria Park tunnel’s three lanes are in operation.

Christmas works

To meet our next milestone - getting the southbound motorway operating to its full capacity in early January – we will be working over the Christma break this year. Please watch out for the next construction update which will outline these works in more detail.

The Jacobs Ladder Stairs are also likely to be shut down for a few days over the Christmas break to perform works to improve the current slip resistance.

New Animation on website

A new animation has been posted on the NZTA website to promote awareness for drivers of the upcoming changes and new southbound motorway layout which starts 9 January 2012.

Please follow this link for more information: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/victoria-parktunnel/driver.html

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