SH1 closure 4-5 Sept - MAJOR DISRUPTION expected in Auckland

[norma]

We have received the following information in an e-mail and been asked to pass it onto as many Auckland residents as possible. It should also be noted by newbies arriving at Auckland airport that weekend.

On the weekend of 4th and 5th September we will be closing the southbound carriageway of SH1 in the vicinity of the Newmarket viaduct to carry out the necessary works to enable us to open the new southbound bridge by Monday 6th September. To avoid major disruption on the surrounding arterial road network it is essential to avoid driving anywhere in Auckland (it will be that bad; I've seen the volumes) during the weekend unless absolutely essential.

Due to the enormous task of getting our message across to the whole of Auckland and the surrounding areas, we are requesting that everyone forward this HTML email to as many people as possible.

I ask you to forward this email to any schools, sports clubs, etc in order to get our message across.

It is a genuine e-mail and more info can be found at the following link:

http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/new...ion/index.html

[sbinder]

While I haven't had much to do with the Newmarket project, there are a good number of people on my team that are involved with it, and so I've seen some of the details on the mess the closure will cause. You'd better hope for good weather that weekend as it'll be far more worthwhile to get around on foot or bicycle than car just about anywhere central to south Auckland. I've conveniently planned a trip back to the States for my little brother's wedding including that weekend, so I'm sorted!

[norma]

Bump. Today's the day.

[frootbat]

Was it all a lot of fuss about nothing? We were driving down SH1 on Saturday at 3pm and the signs said that Newmarket viaduct was open - so they finished over 12 hours early!

[Duncan74]

Was 5Pm on Saturday it was due to close, and it did. So you were early.

All seemed to go to plan, and the publicity seems to have worked in making people avoid the area. I do wonder if the quake meant people stayed at home to be near the phone or watch TV.

[YouMeAndThree]

DH (tanker driver) said it was planned to be 36 hours, but was done in 12. He had an easy night of it despite working a 12 hour shift on Father's Day :-)

[Duncan74]

Did reopen 12 hours early. The beam move apparently worked absolutely perfectly. Obviously this way round was better than starting 12 hours later, and then not having the road open for Monday rush hour.

The advice not to drive in in the weekend was I presume to make sure that come 5pm there wasn't a big exodus from the City by car from day trippers just as the motorway closed.