Work on Puhoi to Warkworth motorway going well

Just over a year has passed since work on one of the country's biggest motorway projects in recent years started.

And it looks like things are well underway at the Puhoi to Warkworth project, where hundreds of people - workers on the ground and those behind the scenes, in the office - are helping to make sure it is ready by 2021.

What was once large patches of greenery around the Moir Hill region have since been cleared, with hundreds of trees felled in the last few months.

The NZ Transport Agency's system design manager, Brett Gliddon, said work was going well and when done, it will be an impressive and important piece of road.

"The existing road - State Highway 1 - is windy, it's unsafe, has a bad safety record."

He said there were a lot of issues around Hill St and Warkworth that frustrated a lot of local drivers and members in the community.

Not only was this new road about improving the safety of the corridor, but also about improving accessibility around Warkworth and getting better and safer access through to Northland.

Puhoi to Warkworth Superintendent Mark Blanchard, left, with Brett Gliddon of NZTA in front of the site works at the top of Moir Hill. Photo / Nick Reed

"Providing good, high-quality access into Northland is gonna make a big difference to Northland into the future."

The 18.5km motorway will extend the four-lane northern motorway (State Highway 1) north of the Johnstone's Hill tunnels to tie in with the existing SH1 north of Warkworth.

It will feature a wire rope barrier along the median of the motorway. Unlike the usual concrete barriers, the wire rope barriers are better at absorbing impact when a vehicle crashes into it.

The motorway has a due date of "late 2021,'' according to released documents, and at its peak will have 500 people working on the project.

Among those leading the operation on the ground is Mark Blanchard, Superintendent for the southern zone of the project.

He has worked on roads all around the Pacific and in Abu Dhabi for the past 20 years and specifically returned home to New Zealand for this motorway.

Blanchard said there was a feeling of pride among the workers, who understood they were part of something historic.

"The general feeling amongst the boys is that they've very much excited to be part of the project.

"[We're] getting a lot of the iwi and a lot of the locals involved in it, so it's a real team atmosphere - it's a real local theme atmosphere which everybody's enjoying and they're really glad to be a part of it.''