The Victoria Viaduct was constructed during the early 1960s to link the Southern Motorway to the Auckland Harbour Bridge (AHB), replacing the link via Nelson Street and Fanshawe Street to access the St Mary's Bay section.
Construction began in 1959 and in 1961 the viaduct opened with the current four lanes. Most traffic growth was expected to be carried via Fanshawe Street with the growth of the CBD. Recently in its original two-way configuration, the viaduct carried an average of 105,512 vehicles per day (more on volumes in the Glossary).
Viaduct under construction in 1961,
click for more classic images.
When the Auckland Harbour Bridge (AHB) was completed in 1959 a small approach was built to allow traffic to travel between Fanshawe Street and the AHB, through St Mary's Bay. This was then linked to the then new Victoria Viaduct in 1961 when construction completed.
In the late 1980s when safety was assessed on the AHB it was proposed to install a moveable barrier system not only on the AHB but continuing around St Mary's Bay along an upgraded five lane Victoria Viaduct until Wellington Street. Unfortunately the Moveable Barrier System was only installed on the AHB in 1990.
The Victoria Viaduct comes under criticism because of its appearance, the lack of stopping space, its traffic capacity and its safety issues. Numerous accidents have happened; such as vehicles driving through the barriers and into Victoria Park below and the risk of a single crash causing links via Auckland's motorway system to turn to chaos.
Beginning in 2009 the Victoria Park Tunnel, Victoria Viaduct and St Mary's Bay widening project commenced to address the bottleneck issues of the aging Victoria Viaduct. Previously, southbound traffic flow was impeded by a bottleneck of two lanes south; and northbound traffic flow was affected by a tight two lane alignment with two on-ramps impeding traffic when continuing toward the bridge. The St Mary's part of the project addresses traffic safety, noise issues and matching bridge layouts more effectively.
$406m |
Under Construction | Complete: March 2012 (two lane tunnel layout opened: 14 November 2011). Opening information here.
The Tunnel
The tunnel is a cut and cover style tunnel. Because of the tunnel being quite shallow, cut and cover tunnels are easier to construct. It's a relatively simple method where a trench is dug, the walls are built and a cover is installed as its roof. Then ground above the tunnel is reconstructed on top of the tunnel. In this case the Victoria Park surface will be returned to park space.
The Victoria Park Tunnel is 12 metres below ground level at its greatest depth and ranges between 12 and 18 metres wide. The tunnel includes three traffic lanes, an emergency shoulder and egress points and ventilation. Its emergency systems include fire fighting techniques such as foam or water deluges, fan isolation and even emergency messages that can be broadcast over car radios. The tunnel also adapts to external light changes to minimise light effects when entering the tunnel.
The North Western Links and Wellington Street on-ramp will use a dedicated lane that enters the tunnel, the northbound traffic uses two dedicated right hand lanes. The tunnel is used by northbound traffic only. Its southern entry point is just south of Franklin Road and its northern exit point is by the current Fanshawe Street on-ramp.
In order for the tunnel to be constructed the Rob Roy (Birdcage) hotel had to be shifted out of the way for construction then returned to its exact place afterwards. The Victory Church car park size was reduced and allowed for the construction of an underground car-park and re-design of the front fascia.
First render of the selected option, a partial tunnel.
Drive through the new tunnel (video).
Fly by the new tunnel and existing viaduct (video).
The Existing Viaduct
Because northbound traffic follows its new alignment in the tunnel, no physical capacity improvements have been made to the viaduct, as southbound traffic uses the existing northbound lanes. This will provide a total of four lanes when heading south.
The two left lanes of the viaduct are used for southbound traffic accessing Cook Street and North Western Link traffic (41% of total current Viaduct traffic heading south) and the two right hand lanes are used for southbound traffic only. As the viaduct are two separate structures, the central barrier that once ran between opposing traffic cannot be removed.
The St Mary's Bay section is a small section between the northern foot of the Victoria Viaduct and Fanshawe Street interchange to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It's a windy and busy section with 141,357 vehicles using it per day (see more on volumes here). Congestion was caused by lane changes and the bottleneck before the Victoria Park Viaduct (southbound) and also some moderate congestion during the afternoon peak before vehicles could access the Bridge's fifth lane. The improvements have addressed safety, noise levels and matching the surrounding lane layouts and capacity improvements.
The section has been widened from four to five lanes in each direction, with a citybound bus lane that exits at Fanshawe Street. For southbound traffic there is one dedicated lane for Fanshawe Street (which tapers into two lanes closer to the off-ramp), two lanes to Cook Street and the North Western Motorway and two lanes south. At the foot of the Victoria Viaduct there are effectively seven lanes in one direction and twelve in total.
A glass pedestrian bridge will be constructed across the motorway from Jacobs Ladder to Westhaven Drive. Polymer acoustic walls have been erected along the western side of the motorway to address noise issues.
The Auckland Harbour Bridge barrier transfer system will also be extended to the foot of the existing viaduct to match lane layouts through the St Mary's section with ones on the bridge.
Fanshawe Street PM Peak lane: In order for the barrier transfer machine to be extended, a complex layout at the Fanshawe Street on-ramp must be installed. This will result in two separate layouts at the on-ramp: during PM peak two separate on-ramp lanes join the motorway either side of the tunnel, outside of PM peak only one lane will join on the left (western) side of the tunnel. See this in this schematic.
The reason for this layout is it minimises lane changes in the small St Mary's Bay section during PM peak. As such a large volume of traffic enters at Fanshawe Street it is hoped that a better split on the Harbour Bridge is achieved; where traffic heading further north uses the central lanes of the bridge, this is done by splitting Fanshawe Street on-ramp traffic into respective sides of St Mary's. Also, when the bridge is opened at three or four lanes less impact is put on mainline tunnel traffic, as Fanshawe Street on-ramp traffic will only enter on one lane. See more on the Barrier Transfer Layouts and Fanshawe/Beaumont & St Mary's Bay layouts.
The official opening and public open day occurred on Saturday the 29th of October 2011. Prime Minister John Key cut the ribbon.
Tunnel opened to traffic on Monday the 14th of November 2011. Two lanes (of three) opened after a weekend of works.
Southbound Alignment over the Victoria Viaduct opened on Monday the 9th of January 2012.
Full Tunnel, Wellington Street & St Mary's Bay operation: will not be active until the project's completion, in March 2012.
Why is the tunnel only open at two lanes wide?
The tunnel could not be opened at three lanes until the St Mary's Bay and Fanshawe Street layouts were complete. The third lane within the tunnel would become useless if it had to close once people emerged from the tunnel (as it would currently do if it opened at three lanes from the tunnel and two from Fanshawe Street).
The current two lane layout is the same layout that drivers had when using the existing Victoria Viaduct alignment, yet driving through a tunnel has seemed to slow drivers down. Therefore the four to five months that drivers have to become used to a tunnel layout should make the third lane opening more effective in March 2012.
Also, the timing of construction must fit in with the Clip On resurfacing over the New Year, the southbound alignment opening in January, the Newmarket Viaduct northbound transition over Anniversary Weekend and the layout configuration for Fanshawe Street.
Comments or questions?
From: Dwane: What is the big white tent for?
The big white tent is on the Victory Christian Church property. The Church is building an underground car park, to replace the car parking lost to the tunnel project. The tent and associated extraction equipment is a requirement of its building conditions, to manage odour from the earthworks. The site of the church is the site of a former gas works and therefore contamination is a major issue that needs managing on both the church’s and the Victoria Park Tunnel projects.
From: David: It seems to me that the real estate above the tunnel doesn't look like much in terms of the need to preserve it by going under it...It’s hard to get my head around the expense of the tunnel while not eliminating the viaduct...I mean, what’s the point of still having the ugly viaduct that breaks up the real estate that the expensive tunnel preserved? Is it just me or is this another Kiwi half measure? Why oh why can't we get things right the first time? If we're digging a tunnel then make the thing big! Remove the viaduct and get all the benefits...we seem to have a culture of compromise and short-sightedness.
Answer: One could easily agree with the points that you have made, yet it is important to look at the project in a macro scale. Eventually there will be a new harbour crossing passing through this area, hence the reason as to why the southbound section has been left for future development. If you look at current proposals for the new harbour crossing you can see that the existing route across the Harbour Bridge and through St Mary's Bay may end at Fanshawe Street, eliminating the need for a southbound tunnel to start at St Mary's. You are right at this being a half measure – but I do not think this makes the project a waste of money. If anything in the long run the project may actually save money and the real estate you talk about without jeopardising future plans. The existing viaduct (although ugly) will provide ample capacity south for the time being – while probably halving the cost to the taxpayer.
From: Steve: From the new design of barriers along Westhaven Drive it looks like you will no longer be able to see the marina from the motorway, isn't that a really silly thing to be blocking?
Answer From: Benjamin Paul | The camber of the corners in some locations requires the road to be raised higher than Westhaven Drive. This means a barrier is needed to prevent cars from going through in an impact. Therefore an Armco barrier (the metal ones with wooden posts) or a tightened wire barrier would not be suitable. Also due to the widening, the motorway is now closer to Westhaven Drive, so a sufficient barrier is needed.
From: Martin: Why only three lanes through the most congested part of Auckland City? There is still no future proofing for Auckland City being undertaken in any development, and this is another short sighted development. There needs to be at least four lanes right though from the moment you come off the Harbour Bridge until at least Onehunga. Instead as you come off the 5 lanes of the Harbour Bridge you be pushed into three. As a rate payer I am completely disappointed at the poor thought out Victoria Park tunnel, I would much rather have seen a new harbour crossing to correct the major problem we have with our current crossing.
Answer From: Benjamin Paul | The project addresses capacity issues by providing four lanes once off the Harbour Bridge where two go to the Cook St and North Western (eventually Western Ring Network) and two southbound. Overall one quarter of traffic that is heading south from the bridge exits at Fanshawe Street. Of the 53,191 cars that are left on the Victoria Viaduct 42% of that exits at Cook Street or the North Western Links. By providing this 42% another two dedicated lanes and southbound traffic two dedicated lanes, I cannot see how this is short sighted. Also the Northbound tunnel can be widened in the future. From your comment it seems that you have not looked at the proposals for the Auckland Harbour Crossing.
From: Mary | What are the plans to ensure there is no utility disruptions (water, gas, power and telecommunications) to the surrounding area during the period of construction?
Answer From: Ben Paul | Ensuring no disruption to services is always included in plans and construction.
From: Terrance | I don’t see anywhere in the plans to straighten the approach to the bridge through St Mary's bay. This is a dangerous piece of road and should cut through the lagoon to provide a safer approach.
From: Jamie | The partial tunnel approach is disappointing because we will still be looking at that ugly viaduct for many more years. In addition, there will still only be two lanes going from the Northern Motorway to the Southern Motorway. I thought one of the main purposes of all these upgrades was to provide for a 'core' of 3 continuous lanes in each direction from the Harbour Bridge to the Newmarket Viaduct, with any additional lanes on any particular section being for connections to and from the CBD, Port (via Grafton Gully) and North-Western Motorway. That made sense to me. The current plan is just another typical Transit half-measure.
Answer From: Ben Paul | There are many reasons why Transit has opted for the partial tunnel option and when all factors are weighed in, it’s the best option. For Transit to build the Victoria Tunnel in both directions it would cost around $700mn, which it would not get funding for, if it did, many factors make it even harder to complete, especially for the southbound tunnel.
The gradient at the end of the tunnel is too steep to allow for the appropriate gradient, the tunnel would have to be constructed outside of the Motorway corridor due to the foundations of the existing Viaduct and would take much longer to complete. Other issues include the second harbour crossing implementation, because the final option for the second harbour crossing has not been confirmed Transit would like to leave all options open, as the second harbour crossing is likely to have priority for southbound traffic and northbound using the existing Harbour Bridge with public transport sharing. With this priority the southbound direction of the Victoria Tunnel needs to be left open for all options. The tunnel for southbound will eventually be completed. Also one thing needs to be looked at: If you are getting 7 lanes through an existing 4 lane corridor would the extra $300m+ to build another 3 underground (the southbound tunnel if built at this stage would only be 3 lanes wide) be better spent on projects that are more urgent than putting a 300m section underground?
I would rather see that money in the short term spent on the Newmarket Viaduct also and public transport and the western ring motorway.
