WATERVIEW CONNECTION

She’s a big one alright – it’s New Zealand’s largest roading project and includes the longest road tunnels in the country.

7 bridges, 5km of motorway

2.4km of underground tunnels

PROJECT VALUE

$1.4
billion

PROJECT TYPE

MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE

ROADING

Who's on the team?

More than 1000 people are working on the Waterview Connection project.

  • Engineers
  • Tunnellers
  • Painters
  • Electricians
  • Project managers
  • Quantity surveyors
  • Building information systems
  • Concreters
  • Fabricators
  • Steel workers
  • Urban designers
  • Traffic/transport management 
  • Architects
  • Plumbers
  • Procurement specialists
  • Risk management specialists
  • Health and safety advisors

Project snapshot

 

What: The Waterview Connection will connect the Southwestern and Northwestern Motorways (State Highways 20 and 16). It’s the ‘missing link’ to complete the Western Ring Route – a motorway alternative that eases pressure on State Highway 1 through the centre of the city and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.  

Where: inner west Auckland – Mount Roskill, Waterview, Mount Albert, Point Chevalier

Timeline: 2012 – open early 2017

Companies: Fletcher Construction, MacDow, Obayashi Corporation, Beca, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Tonkin and Taylor

  • 7 major bridge structures
  • 5km of new motorway
  • Nearly half of the new motorway – 2.4km – is underground
  • 1000s of tons of tunnel soil removed
  • Constructed using the 10th largest tunnel boring machine in the world
  • 4000 lights
  • 400km of wiring, enough to stretch from Auckland to Waiouru in the Ruapehu District
  • 140,000+ litres of paint
  • 62 ventilation fans
  • 145 CCTV cameras in the tunnels
  • 2.5km walking and cycling path
  • 2 skate parks and a BMX bike track
  • Expected to be used by 83,000 vehicles a day by 2026
     

When the Waterview Connection opens in early 2017 it will have the biggest impact on the way people travel around and through Auckland since the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959.

Going underground