Yesterday NZTA announced that Fletcher Construction, along with a bunch of other companies, forming what’s called the “Well-Connected” consortium, have won the contract for the Waterview Connection project:
NZTA awards contract for New Zealand’s biggest-ever roading project
New Zealand’s biggest and most complex roading project – Auckland’s Waterview Connection – is a step closer to completion with the NZ Transport Agency’s announcement today that it has chosen the preferred tenderer for the project’s construction.
The successful tenderer is the Well-Connected consortium. Well-Connected includes New Zealand and international companies: Fletcher Construction, McConnell Dowell Constructors, Obayashi Corporation, PB New Zealand, Beca Infrastructure and Tonkin & Taylor. The consortium includes five sub-alliance partners and contractors: SICE, Wilson Tunnelling, Downer EDI Works, Boffa Miskell and Warren and Mahoney. Well-Connected will now enter into an alliance with the NZTA to deliver the project.
The project, to be finished by 2016, will complete one of the key links in the Western Ring Route around Auckland by connecting the Southwestern Motorway (SH20) at Mt Roskill to the Northwestern Motorway (SH16), providing a 48 kilometre motorway alternative to ease pressure on SH1 and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone towards a transport solution that will deliver many benefits for Aucklanders and for all of New Zealand,” says the NZTA’s Chief Executive, Geoff Dangerfield.
“The Waterview Connection is the key transport link needed to complete the Western Ring Route. This will have a major change on the way traffic moves around Auckland, keeping the city moving and the economy growing. Business, commuters and tourists will all be able to travel more reliably, more safely and with much greater convenience. This important travel solution will reduce congestion and provide a strategic alternative to SH1 – the country’s busiest motorway.”
The Western Ring Route is one of seven Roads of National Significance (RoNS), identified by the Government as vital to enabling economic growth in New Zealand by moving people and freight between and within major population centres more safely and efficiently.
Together with the NZTA, Well-Connected will be responsible for constructing nearly 5kms of new motorway that includes tunnels and interchanges that will connect the Southwestern and Northwestern Motorways.
More than half of the new motorway will be underground – traffic will drive through two three-lane tunnels – which will be a first for New Zealand.
“This project will require underground work at an unprecedented scale, in a country where road tunnels are relatively rare. It will need to be constructed through difficult terrain that consists of soft sedimentary rock and basalt lava flows,” says Mr Dangerfield.
“It won’t be easy, but by constructing the project in an alliance between the NZTA and the private sector, we’re ensuring that this project will be delivered as quickly as possible and with the very best value for money.”
Mr Dangerfield says today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in a rigorous procurement process that started last year.Last November, the NZTA shortlisted three registered consortia down to two. The other shortlisted consortium which was unsuccessful today was Tuhono. The Tuhono consortium included Leighton Contractors, Fulton Hogan, John Holland, Aecom and Sinclair Knight Merz. Tuhono also included United Group and Keller New Zealand as proposed sub alliance partners.
Mr Dangerfield thanked Tuhono for its hard work and involvement in the process and says that both of the final tender submissions received by the NZTA were innovative, demonstrated good value for money and proved that either of these competitors were up to the challenge of delivering a complex and important project of this size.
“These parties have been engaged in a competitive and rigorous tender process that has attracted a high level of interest both nationally and internationally. We have been incredibly impressed with what they have delivered, and we are pleased with the outcome of this competitive process. We are on track to deliver this very large project on time and on budget at $1.4 billion. That’s great news for Auckland and great news for New Zealand.”
Mr Dangerfield says the NZTA has run the competitive alliance tender process in parallel with its pursuit of statutory approvals for the Waterview Connection Project from the Board of Inquiry. The Agency received the final nod to go ahead in July.
“Running the two processes in parallel has helped us save up to a year in construction time and ensure we get the best market prices.
“Now, we gear up towards the start of construction. We’re nailing down the final design scheme that will incorporate all of the Board’s additions and take into account the community’s views and concerns and excitingly, we’re looking forward to getting that first spade in the ground before the end of the year.” Mr Dangerfield adds.
“And it doesn’t stop here for the community. They will continue to have a very active role as the project develops. We’ll be establishing community liaison groups that will ensure the community will have a voice throughout the project’s lifecycle and we’ll make sure they’ll be in place well before construction commences.”
While I can’t help but wonder what spending $1.4 billion on further improving Auckland’s public transport system might help achieve, I have generally come around to accepting the Waterview Connection project as a necessary last piece of Auckland’s motorway system. In particular, it was heartening to follow the Board of Inquiry consenting process quite closely, read through the 300-odd page decision and see that it really had taken into account many of the community’s concerns about the impact of the project – and required some really substantial mitigation.
With the Hobsonville Motorway now open, the Waterview Connection project will complete the Western Ring Route and (hopefully) complete the Auckland motorway network for good.
Processing...
Building it along the Rosebank peninsula would have been better. Would have saved a lot of houses. Also no need to destroy the north end of waterview.
It would have instead destroyed Heron Park and one whole edge of the peninsula.
“With the Hobsonville Motorway now open, the Waterview Connection project will complete the Western Ring Route and (hopefully) complete the Auckland motorway network for good.”
It pains me to say this, but we all know that’s wishful thinking at a time when we have a government that will only build motorways no matter the cost financially, environmentally or socially.
it isnt the last piece. THe last piece is the SH 18/SH 1 interchange near to COnstellation drive. All of that traffic racing north out of the new Waterview link will have no where to go other than into massive queues. The new interchange is a major project in the same vein as the 20/1 connection. It should have been done already
I don’t know whether that’s really a necessary project. You could widen Upper Harbour Highway a bit if necessary, but a full motorway-to-motorway interchange seems like spending a few hundred million just to make the city’s motorway map look prettier.
its necessary and is coming
I don’t think it’s coming any time particularly soon. NZTA are pushing for six-laning between Constellation and Greville, but the full interchange is extremely expensive and while it’s on their wish-list, the chances of it being built within the next decade are pretty low.
We can all hope that the powers that be will soon view the motorway network as “complete” but I honestly have my doubts. Personally I do not believe that AMETI or one of it’s variants has entirely gone away.
I think it has been tucked quietly out of sight for the time being with the intention of resurrecting the proposal at a future time when no-one is paying attention.
Next motorway on the cards will be one through Onehunga
Economically this should have been a 2 lane open motorway with tolls to limit traffic and price of under $600 million.
There were certainly plenty of good reasons to choose the Rosebank alignment, including access to industry/jobs. Reclaiming a large portion of the mangroves & mud flats on the eastern side of the penninsula would also have made good economic sense.
Alternatively the propsed New Nth Rd or Gt Nth Rd interchanges for the current Waterview alignment would also have provided much better access to the Penninsula. But with the Waterview route chosen, the penninsula (& one of the drivers for building the motorway in the first place) has been forgotten, and the interchanges dropped.
This also leaves Waterview residents with the strange situation of having all the disruption of the new motorway to the airport, but having to drive to St Lukes, Rosebank Rd, or Maioro St, in order to access it. Traffic along Gt Nth Rd isn’t predicted to drop much either.
But as a local resident, I am pleased that 10 years of waiting is over and at this point it is most unlikely that the plans can change, again. Just 5-6 years of construction left to endure.
The cost of going via Rosebank was considerably higher both financially and environmentally which is why the Waterview route was chosen. There will still be pretty good access to the peninsula as vehicles will be able to take the ramp straight onto SH16 then use the Rosebank exit to get right into the middle of the industrial area.
Anthony,
I don’t agree with tolling the road right now, my first option would be rather than tolling the new Waterview connection, we should be reintroducing tolls to the harbor bridge, as to deter people away from the CBD motorway junction and use this link as a alternative route, the main advantage of the link is to reduce the amount of traffic using the SH1 section.
Disgraceful..will encourage people to get back in car again.
it’s not to late to stop it admin!election in 3months! labour
can campaign on this waste..get votes..and win.
that $ could biult the cbd tunnel
Labours’ last proposal was for an even more expensive tunnel, how would voting for them improve the situation?
I’m all for tolling the bridge, particularly as a method of reducing congestion & therefore the need to build another crossing. Similarly, SH16 causeway, upper harbour bridges, Mangere bridge, Panmure bridges, SH1 Otahuhu, are all pinch points where the same arguement might apply. Tolling SH20 alone would not help SH1. Tolling the whole system at every ramp is an idea but it would be expensive and cause increased congestion on local roads. Increased vehicle rego costs and fuel taxes would have a similar effect and could be introduced locally.
There is essentially only a single road along the length of Rosebank penninsula, with the motorway at one end. It suffers from through traffic as much as from the single connection which is nothing like being in the middle of the industrial area.
Rosebank was only more expensive as the costed design was pretty much a bridge from Heron Park all the way to SH16, in order to avoid damaging the fragile unique pristine ecosystem which ajoins the pennisula. Reclaiming the mudflats would have been much cheaper.
In the wake of the Christchurch earthquake the best thing we can do now is grow some balls! The project cost could be halved by building at grade, yes there would be another 60-100 houses affected, tell that to the people of Christchurch and see what sympathy you get, and imagine how far the savings would help them rebuild.
There are a multitude of other reasons why it should be at a grade, including a design speed of 100kph not 80kph, gradients would be flatter, standard lane widths could be used not sow create widths, emergency/bus shoulders could be included, their would be no risk of a catastrophic fire in a confined space, no need for emission buildings, reduced ground water effects, reduced ongoing maintenance costs, hazardous goods and over dimension vehicles wouldn’t be band, the cycleway could continue to run alongside the motorway & an interchange at New North Rd could be included, wouldn’t that be great.
Yes noise is an issue, it would be more visible, and communities would be split but all these things can be mitigated a lot more cheaply than by building a tunnel.
Building the Waterview connection at grade is the right outcome for NZ
Grassy, what have you been smoking? If its too expensive to do it well, then the only option
is to can it. No more urban motorways ever.