Central Motorway Junction Project

Central Motorway Junction Stage 2

CONSTRUCTION of Stage 2 of Transit New Zealand’s Central Motorway Junction project commenced in January. This work will continue through until 2006. The project is being undertaken for Transit New Zealand by an entity called ‘Complete Joint Venture’, which is a joint venture between Fletcher Construction and Leighton Contractors of Australia.

Golden Bay Cement is being used extensively in the estimated 15,000 cubic metres of concrete that is being used for this major infrastructure project.

Work will generally be undertaken within the existing motorway corridor. The limits of the work will be bounded by Wellington Street and Symonds Street on State Highway One and Bond Street on the North Western Motorway (State Highway 16).

This project will result in new links from the Port of Auckland and Grafton Gully to the Northern Motorway northbound; and from the Northern Motorway southbound through to the Port of Auckland and Grafton Gully; and Northern Motorway southbound to Northwestern Motorway westbound; and from the Northwestern Motorway eastbound to Northern Motorway northbound.

There will also be off-ramp and on-ramp improvements. These include revisions to the off-ramp from the Southern Motorway northbound to Nelson Street. The new ramp will diverge on the left hand side.

Additional lanes and improved lane arrangements will also be undertaken, including the widening of the Southern Motorway (State Highway One) southbound to provide an additional lane between the Hobson Street on-ramp and Symonds Street on-ramp.

There will be four major bridges or viaducts. There will also be a makeup structure over the existing ‘Ramp B’ to connect to Structure 2. The existing Newton No 1 Bridge (the long viaduct which strides across Newton Gully carrying Southern Motorway traffic northbound) has to be strengthened and barriers upgraded.

The Complete Joint Venture has also entered into a joint venture with Stresscrete to manufacture the massive prestress concrete beams required for the project at a purpose built site at Mangere (see adjoining article). As well as the beams being constructed at Mangere, they are also making over 15 kilometres of safety barriers, and precast concrete panels which will be used in the substantial retaining walls that are being built.

IN land that extends beyond the Ascott Industrial Estate towards the Auckland International Airport in Mangere some of the biggest prestressed precast beams ever made in New Zealand are being constructed for the Central Motorway Junction (CMJ) Project. The Complete Joint Venture (Fletcher-Leighton) has joined forces in a separate joint venture with Stresscrete to set up a temporary precast construction facility that will produce the 92 T-Roff precast beams, precast panels and safety barriers for the Central Motorway Junction (CMJ) Project. The T-Roff beams are up to 38 metres in length and weigh up to 58 tonnes. Golden Bay Cement is being used in the high early strength concrete mix that has been specifically designed to attain 35mpa after 16 hours.  High strength in a short space of time. There is a cement silo on-site and most of the concrete is being batched on-site. Adam Plimmer (pictured above) is the Complete Joint Venture Precasting Manager at the Mangere site.   “We started back in early March with a greenfield’s site attached to an existing cartage company base,” explains Adam. “In a very short time we have set up a new precast facility that is producing some of the biggest precast items ever manufactured in New Zealand. We have set up two 32 tonne gantry cranes and have 80 tonnes of steelwork in our steel mold and stressing bed.” The temporary facility is likely to be in place at Mangere for an 18 month period through until late in 2005.

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