Victoria Park Viaduct

The Victoria Park Viaduct is a major motorway viaduct carrying the Auckland Northern Motorway (State Highway 1) over the Victoria Park area in Auckland City, New Zealand. Due to the high traffic volumes passing through on their way to and from North Shore City, and because the viaduct is only four lanes wide in total (while adjacent motorway stretches are at least six lanes), the bridge over the park is considered "one of the country's worst traffic bottlenecks"." [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=9001911 Auckland to get $200m road tunnel] " - "The New Zealand Herald", Monday December 06, 2004]

After improvements to the Central Motorway Junction directly to the south in the early 2000s, Transit New Zealand, the highways authority, initially proposed a widening of the viaduct, which met with opposition from locals as well as from the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Council, because it would further burden the Victoria Park area with more traffic and a larger overpass structure. In 2004 the authority agreed that instead of a second viaduct, the Vic Park Tunnel should be built, carrying northbound traffic only west of the existing structure, freeing it for southbound traffic.

Tunnel plans

Capacity extension

The new tunnel is to reduce congestion on the Victoria Park section of State Highway 1, an area where delays are becoming more common even in the interpeak between morning and afternoon rush hours. By providing more capacity, it will also ensure that the Auckland Harbour Bridge can be used to its full capacity. [http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/html/vpt/vptObjectives.htm Vic Park Tunnel - Objectives] (from the Transit New Zealand project website)] Originally called the 'Harbour Bridge to City' project, the official name has now become 'Vic Park Tunnel'.

The tunnel, to cost approximately NZ$ 320 million (2007 estimate), will be a northbound-traffic carrying structure only, entering the ground in the area of the existing 'Birdcage' heritage pub (which will be relocated to allow the tunnel portal to be built in the area), and will reemerge to the northwest of the park where it will feed into additional lanes provided alongside the St Marys Bay stretch of the motorway. [http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/html/vpt/vptProposed.htm Vic Park Tunnel - The Proposed Work] (from the Transit New Zealand project website)] The tunnel will provide three lanes of traffic, and will be 440 m long. [ [http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/html/vpt/vptFeatures-VP.htm Vic Park Tunnel - Key Features] (from the Transit New Zealand project website)] Construction is to last from approximately 2009 to 2014. [ [http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/html/vpt/vptTimeline.htm Vic Park Tunnel - Project Timeline] (from the Transit New Zealand project website)]

Full undergrounding option

A future option to also bury the traffic lanes of the remaining southbound viaduct at a later stage was not ruled out. [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/story.cfm?a_id=1&objectid=10423507 Brian Rudman: Victoria Park tunnel option on shifting ground] " - "The New Zealand Herald", Monday 12 February 2007] It was initially desired by the local stakeholders but did not go forward as the estimates for a replacement of the existing viaduct with a second/wider two-way tunnel envisaged costs of almost 50% over the cost of a one-way structure. Transit has noted that the existing viaduct might remain in use for a further 30 years before being replaced with a two-way tunnel structure. Auckland City and Auckland Regional Council however continue to call for an earlier burial of the whole motorway. They have also called for the 'Birdcage' pub (in the meantime bought by Transit) to be moved over the tunnel entry instead of besides it, to achieve a more attractive gateway and public space for the Freemans Bay community. [" [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10462671 Make pub the focal point, tunnel planners urged] " - "New Zealand Herald, Monday 10 September 2007]

Interaction with harbour tunnels

The layout of any further traffic changes in the area will also be heavily affected by the plans for a possible second harbour crossing, which some plans see emerging at the Western Reclamation north of the tunnel, which is itself being replanned as a new mixed use and public park area. In May 2008, Transit New Zealand decided to revisit parts of the already consented plans to ensure that the Vic Park Tunnel design would not conflict with future harbour-crossing tunnels which were now short-listed to possibly connect Auckland City's Spaghetti Junction to North Shore City and would likely start in the area or run through it." [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=348&objectid=10511755 Transit looks again at plan for $330m underground link] " - "The New Zealand Herald", Thursday 22 May 2008] Critics have however raised the question of whether the project should still go ahead when a second harbour crossing might eventually remove the need for the capacity extension that the Vic Park Tunnel is to provide.

ee also

*Auckland Harbour Bridge
*Central Motorway Junction
*Newmarket Viaduct
*Victoria Park, Auckland
*Western Reclamation

References

External links

* [http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/html/vpt/home.htm Vic Park Tunnel] (the official project website of Transit New Zealand)