A major roadworks project has been kicked off on State Highway 1, Wellington, causing gridlock for those getting back to work on alert level 3.
Motorists have been lambasting the queues - which in areas stretch for kilometres - while there have been reports some have lashed out at roading crews.
NZ Transport Agency Wellington posted a reminder to its followers on Twitter early today, reminding them that the left southbound lane will be closed between Churton Park to Johnsonville.
The "major resurfacing and drainage work" would take about two weeks.
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Advertise with NZME.It will also include two nights of ramp closures and then two nights of a full closure of the southbound lanes from tomorrow.
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Southbound traffic had remained congested since.
At 9.20am, NZTA posted an update that traffic was backed up to the Tawa straight.
A woman wrote on a Wellington traffic updates page that some workers were "copping tonnes of abuse from passing motorists and even getting things THROWN at them today"
Another wrote that, at 10.15am, it took her an hour to get from Tawa to Johnsonville.
However, NZTA says traffic was now easing with queues back to Grenada North but reminded people to continue to expect delays.
However, the delays have shocked many locals, with comments including: "OMG ... are all those people really going to work?", and "Wow. Didn't take long to be back to normal."
