Central Motorway Junction | |
---|---|
Spaghetti Junction | |
Location | |
Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand | |
Coordinates | 36°51′37″S174°45′36″E / 36.860380°S 174.760030°E Coordinates: 36°51′37″S174°45′36″E / 36.860380°S 174.760030°E |
Roads at junction | SH 1 (Northern Motorway) SH 16 (Northwestern Motorway) |
Construction | |
Type | Spaghetti |
Constructed | 1969-2006 |
Opened | December 2006 |
Maintained by | New Zealand Transport Agency |
The Central Motorway Junction or CMJ (best known as Spaghetti Junction and rarely as Central Motorway Intersection [1] ), is the intersection of State Highways 1 and 16, just south of the central business district of Auckland. A multilevel structure (three traffic levels crossing in several locations), it has been described as a "fiendishly complicated, multi-layered puzzle of concrete, steel and asphalt". Carrying around 200,000 vehicles a day, it is one of the busiest stretches of road in New Zealand. [2]
The central motorway junction forms the intersection between three major motorways: the Northern Motorway (SH1), the Southern Motorway (SH1), and the Northwestern Motorway (SH16), and has several off-ramps for access to the city centre. It is mainly in gullies and cuttings around the CBD, and its construction 1960–1970s removed whole neighbourhoods.
It has somewhat of a hybrid function, falling between a typical ‘X’ interchange and ring road around the city centre. All linkages are direct and there is no separate ring road. The interchange and associated structures encircle the Auckland CBD on three sides, the Auckland waterfront to the north forming the fourth 'border' of central Auckland.
Designed in the 1960s and with most of its links built in the 1970s, [3] the CMJ was a major project in a scheme that led to the forcible acquisition and demolition of 15,000 dwellings in the inner suburbs, causing 50,000 people to move away from the area, with major negative effects on the nearby Auckland CBD, and especially the Karangahape Road shopping area, which fell into decline for decades. [4] Two Catholic schools, St Benedict's College (secondary) and St Benedict's School (primary), were forced to close down.
The CMJ was substantially extended (or in a sense, finally completed) in the 2000s, with the final links opened to traffic in December 2006. During the duration of this NZ$208m project, the existing motorways had to be closed several hundred times during overnight, with traffic rerouted over local roads. [2]
The CMJ provides motorway-to-motorway links between the following four routes radiating from the city centre:
The last of these links (Northwest Motorway eastbound to Auckland Northern Motorway northbound) officially opened on 19 December 2006, marking the completion of the junction. [2] Plans have now shifted further north, with the tunnel at the Victoria Park Viaduct being the last of a set of three major motorway projects in the area.
The CMJ includes city exits from SH1 and SH16 to downtown, Grafton Gully (the first of the three large motorway projects, containing the section of the Northwest Motorway between the Upper Queen Street bridge and The Strand in Parnell, and the Auckland Southern Motorway between Symonds Street exit and The Strand), with five other pairs of ramps giving access to the central area.
A noteworthy structural component of the CMJ is the area underneath Karangahape Rd, where 19 lanes of traffic forming nine distinct links pass through a cutting through the Karangahape ridge on a multi-level structure.
The other two major motorways in Auckland, the 'South-Western' and 'Upper Harbour' motorways, form a continuous link in the west of the city, providing an alternative to SH1 between Manukau and Albany. The goal is to provide traffic passing through Auckland, or starting or ending in the western suburbs, with an alternative high-speed route that bypasses the often congested motorways in central Auckland including the CMJ.
The NZ Transport Agency was in November 2009 investigating a plan to extend the off-road Northwestern Cycleway through the intersection, to join it to Symonds Street and achieve better cycle linkages from the west into the Auckland CBD. [5] In mid 2010, it became public that a preliminary alignment had been chosen, with the cycle path using the Upper Queen Street bridge to cross the motorway. [6]
A disused offramp was repurposed in 2016 as a dedicated walking and cycling shared path, extending the Northwestern cycleway through to Nelson street. A purpose-built bridge connects Canada Street to the brightly painted and illuminated offramp now known as Lightpath/Te Ara I Whiti.
The interchange's nickname comes from that of Gravelly Hill Junction in Birmingham, UK, which opened in 1972 and was given the nickname "Spaghetti Junction". [7] [8] [9] Many complex interchanges around the world have also been given the same nickname.
State Highway 1 is the longest and most significant road in the New Zealand road network, running the length of both main islands. It appears on road maps as SH 1 and on road signs as a white number 1 on a red shield, but it has the official designations SH 1N in the North Island, SH 1S in the South Island.
Transport in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, is defined by factors that include the shape of the Auckland isthmus, the suburban character of much of the urban area, a history of focusing investment on roading projects rather than public transport, and high car-ownership rates.
The Central Connector, is a bus route between Britomart Transport Centre in the Auckland CBD, New Zealand, and the commercial suburb of Newmarket. It has some aspects of a bus rapid transit link. It was expected to improve journey times by about 14 minutes for around 2,600 buses per week, about 65,000 passengers daily. Work began in April 2008 and is now finished.
Grafton Bridge is a road bridge spanning Grafton Gully in Auckland, New Zealand. Built of reinforced concrete in 1910, it connects the Auckland CBD and Karangahape Road with Grafton. It spans about 97.6 metres, rises 25.6 metres above the abutments to a height of around 43 metres over the gully. When the bridge was constructed, it contained the largest reinforced concrete arch in the world.
Grafton Gully is a deep and very wide gully running northwards towards the sea through the volcanic hills of the Auckland volcanic field in New Zealand. It divides the CBD from the suburbs of Grafton and Parnell in the east.
The Auckland Northern Motorway in the Auckland Region of New Zealand links Central Auckland and Puhoi in the former Rodney District via the Hibiscus Coast and North Shore. It is part of State Highway 1.
The Auckland Southern Motorway is the major route south out of the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is part of State Highway 1.
The Wellington Urban Motorway, part of SH 1, is the major road into and out of Wellington, New Zealand. It is 7 km long, ranges from three to seven lanes wide, and extends from the base of the Ngauranga Gorge into the Wellington CBD.
The Northwestern Motorway, part of State Highway 16, is the major western route and secondary northern route out of Auckland in New Zealand. Twenty-one kilometres in length, the motorway runs from Stanley St in Parnell through the Central Motorway Junction, and west through Central Auckland and West Auckland before continuing northwest and terminating outside of Kumeū. Its western terminus is at Brigham Creek Road in Whenuapai. A large part of it forms the middle section of the Western Ring Route.
State Highway 20 (SH 20), also known as the Southwestern Motorway, is a New Zealand state highway linking State Highway 1 at Manukau with State Highway 16 in Point Chevalier, via Māngere and Onehunga. Along with its spurs, State Highway 20A and 20B, the state highway serves Auckland Airport, the country's largest, therefore making SH 20 a key arterial route connecting the airport to the wider Auckland region and most of the upper North Island. The route also forms the southern part of the Western Ring Route, a 48 kilometres (30 mi) motorway route bypassing central Auckland.
The Waterview Connection is a motorway section through west/central Auckland, New Zealand. It connects State Highway 20 in the south at Mt Roskill to State Highway 16 in the west at Point Chevalier, and is a part of the Western Ring Route.
Bike Auckland, formerly Cycle Action Auckland (CAA) is a pro-cycling advocacy group in Auckland, New Zealand. The predominantly volunteer group aims to improve infrastructure and conditions, as well as perceptions of cycling to encourage more "everyday people" to use bicycles, including for commuting and recreation.
Second Harbour Crossing is the name given to the proposed second transport link across the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. The second link would supplement the Auckland Harbour Bridge which is nearly at capacity and also provide more redundancy and public transport linkages between the Auckland city centre and the North Shore. It is sometimes also called the Third Harbour Crossing, as there is already an Upper Harbour Bridge. More recently, it is named Additional Waitematā Harbour Crossing (AWHC) in planning documents.
The Christchurch Southern Motorway is the main southern route into and out of Christchurch, New Zealand. The motorway forms part of State Highway 1 and State Highway 76.
The Northwestern Cycleway is a 12 km mostly off-road cycle route in New Zealand that connects the Auckland CBD with the suburb of Westgate. For most of its length, it runs alongside the Northwestern Motorway.
The Waikaraka Cycleway is an off-road cycleway in the south of the Auckland isthmus, New Zealand, running from the suburb of Wesley along New Zealand State Highway 20 to Onehunga and then continuing along the shoreline of the Manukau Harbour beside mostly industrialised areas until it ends at Hugo Johnston Drive, in Southdown.
The Christchurch Northern Motorway is the main northern route into and out of Christchurch, New Zealand. The motorway forms part of State Highway 1 and State Highway 74.
The Auckland Airport Line was a proposed heavy rail line in Auckland, New Zealand, that would have linked Auckland Airport with the Auckland central business district via central isthmus suburbs.
The Nelson Street Cycleway is a cycleway in Auckland, New Zealand. The most well-known section of the path is Te Ara I Whiti, translated as, and commonly known as Lightpath. The cycleway then continues on to the Nelson Street arterial road into the City Centre.