Road works promise more delays

Auckland motorists are being warned to expect delays on two more fronts as construction and maintenance projects ramp up for summer.

Contractors hope to start resealing the four centre lanes of the Auckland Harbour Bridge tonight - after four cancellations - and delays are likely from this morning at Hillsborough Rd at the head of the $169 million Roskill motorway extension.

The $1 million bridge job was supposed to have started at Easter, but rain threw Transit New Zealand's schedule out three times, and it is now unlikely to be finished much before Christmas.

All four lanes of the original bridge will be closed between 9pm and 5.30am each night for up to six weeks, as will the northbound on-ramp from Curran St, confining traffic to the outside two clip-on lanes in each direction.

Contractors for Opus International need four clear nights to get a head-start on the project, in which 21,000 sq m of asphaltic concrete will be laid in a 25-30mm thick "carpet".

Over in Mt Roskill, traffic using busy Hillsborough Rd to connect to or from the Southwestern Motorway face potential delays as 40-tonne dump-trucks cross the intersection there to transfer earth from excavations needed to build a 400m westbound off-ramp.

The trucks, which for up to three years will deliver the earth for reuse as part of ramps to the west of Hillsborough Rd, will be governed by traffic lights with 20-second phasing.

Although Transit initially proposed limiting operating hours, it has since agreed to allow contractor Fulton Hogan to work between 7am and 7pm, subject to monitoring traffic flows.

Transit regional manager Richard Hancy said the agency did not expect major disruption, but suggested "motorists take construction work into account and allow for more travel time, or use alternative routes to minimise any inconvenience".

This could be a tall order, as peak-hour traffic along Hillsborough Rd is often almost bumper-to-bumper which fuelled residents' demands for the 4km motorway extension to New Windsor, due to open in 2009.

"This is really the start of the Mt Roskill project getting under way," Mr Hancy said of the Hillsborough Rd intersection crossing plan, even though construction began officially in September.

Fulton Hogan's community liaison officer for the project, Les Barker, said he expected "a bit of flak" but a plan to start this summer building a roundabout further east where traffic leaves or joins the Southeastern Motorway at Queenstown Rd had been delayed.

This would ensure an alternative clear path to the motorway until winter, when construction would be possible at that site.

A new set of traffic lights would also be installed at the intersection of Hillsborough Rd and Carlton St, to make it easier for vehicles to avoid the main roadworks and head for the motorway via Queenstown Rd.

The end of the existing motorway will have to be sunk 8m below where it now ends at Hillsborough Rd, which will be raised 1.5m on a bridge across the motorway extension.

Mr Barker said 520,000 tonnes of earth would be dug out of the existing motorway alignment and from its southern and northern sides to make way for the westbound off-ramp and an eastbound on-ramp.

The two ramps will be built first, so traffic can be diverted to them when the main motorway excavation begins.

A 300m bypass of May Rd further west on the project is expected to be ready for traffic in just over a week, allowing the first of six motorway bridges to be built.

- additional reporting, Moana Burt