Work to erase highway blackspot under way

Construction on the Mercer to Long Swamp section of State Highway 1 started yesterday to eliminate one of the country's most dangerous blackspots.

The notorious 12km stretch of road between Mercer and Whangamarino Rd, near Meremere, will cost $56 million and will be completed in late 2003 or early 2004.

It is expected to reduce the number of road deaths, which totalled 18 in the past five years, in the section of road.

The two-lane road will be turned into a four-lane expressway by using the existing highway for the north-bound lanes and constructing a new south-bound double lane.

Construction manager John Kerr said it would be the most geotechnically challenging roading project in the North Island.

"What's not hills is swamp and the whole area is historically unstable."

Before the main construction of the expressway can begin next summer, two large swamps have to be filled in and stabilised.

The work is the first step in the $433 million four-lane expressway from Auckland to Cambridge, which will be completed over the next 20 years.

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