Auckland traffic: Early morning chaos for motorists in central city after road closure

Cars entering the Nelson St on-ramp early this morning. Photo / Supplied

Motorists can expect further delays coming off the motorway into central Auckland tomorrow morning.

The closure of a motorway off-ramp at Nelson St caused chaos for Central Auckland traffic early this morning.

A spokeswoman for Auckland Transport said the issue involved resurfacing of Nelson St between Union and Wellesley streets.

“There will be a further closure possibly tonight, but if the weather isn’t good then the next work window is next Tuesday night,” she said.

Motorists are being warned that strong winds could force the closure of Auckland Harbour Bridge as a storm approaches ahead of the city’s long weekend.

Winds of up to 110km/h are predicted, sparking the warning from Waka Kotahi to drivers. A strong wind watch will see an amber alert from 7am tomorrow.

“Motorists are urged to drive to the conditions, look out for the electronic message boards which will indicate lane closures and reduced speeds, or full bridge closure, and stay within their lane while travelling across the bridge,” the warning said.

MetService is forecasting heavy rain and strong winds in Auckland from 7am tomorrow, saying it expects 15 hours of heavy rain laced with thunderstorms with severe gales in exposed places.

The AT spokeswoman said the work hours on Nelson St are 7pm to 5am, saying work did not finish until about 5.30am today.

A video message board was put at the top of Nelson St in the week before work started today, advising of the project and work hours, she said.

Workers who arrived around 3am said they were forced to come up with their own detour as the detour in place was somewhat confusing - causing those early morning motorists to drive the wrong way.

One motorist driving in from West Auckland said overhead motorway signs only alerted drivers of the upcoming road closure just before the Nelson St off-ramp - by then, too late to take another route earlier on the motorway network.

Another driver entering the CBD on Exit 427 heading into Nelson St reported a long queue of vehicles shortly before 6am. He said there were no detour signs or any warning of a hidden queue as they came off the motorway.

One driver reported several lanes on Nelson St had resealing and fresh markings.

The road was reopened just before 6am.