Grafton Gully is a deep (about 50 m) and very wide (about 100 m) 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 Grafton Gully was formerly home to the Waipārūrū Stream, known to early European settlers as the Graveyard Spring. [1]
One of early Governors of New Zealand was Robert FitzRoy, whose grandfather was the third Duke of Grafton. The suburb that developed next to the Government Domain and Hospital was called Grafton. Eventually the adjoining gully became known as Grafton Gully although many people continued to call it Cemetery Gully for some years.
Grafton Gully is crossed by Grafton Bridge near its south end. Symonds Street Cemetery lies on its western slope.
The gully is of the few areas in central Auckland that has not been claimed by buildings or for recreation (mostly due to the steepness of its sides), though prior to the construction of the motorway part of the gully was occupied by the Blandford Park sports facility until the mid-1960s. [2]
Large parts of the gully are still mostly covered with bush, though the bottom of the gully carries multiple motorway lanes of State Highways 16 into the city further north (such as to Ports of Auckland). SH16 (Stanley Street) carried an average of 34,000 vehicles per day in 2003. [3]
The Grafton Gully motorway project included two stages (with a third planned for when future traffic reaches trigger levels) and was built for NZ$68 million during 2001-2003. [3]
In 2014 the Grafton Gully Cycleway was opened through the gully to Beach Road with links to the University of Auckland campus areas in the eastern Auckland CBD. [4] [5]
The North Shore is part of the large urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, located to the north of the Waitematā Harbour. To the east, has the Hauraki Gulf, to the west, is West Auckland, to the south, has the Waitematā Harbour and Central Auckland, to the north has the Hibiscus Coast. From 1989 until 2010, North Shore City was an independent city within the Auckland Region, until it was incorporated into the Auckland Council.
Māngere Bridge, officially also called the Manukau Harbour Crossing, is a dual motorway bridge over the Manukau Harbour in south-western Auckland, New Zealand, crossing between the suburb also known as Māngere Bridge and the suburb of Onehunga.
Grafton is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and the grandfather of a subsequent Governor, Robert FitzRoy. Once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting its history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades.
The Central Motorway Junction or CMJ, is the intersection of State Highways 1 and 16, just south of the central business district of Auckland. A multilevel structure, 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.
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 Auckland isthmus, also known as the Tāmaki isthmus, is a narrow stretch of land on the North Island of New Zealand in the Auckland Region, and the location of the central suburbs of the city of Auckland, including the CBD. The isthmus is located between two rias : the Waitematā Harbour to the north, which opens to the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana and Pacific Ocean, and the Manukau Harbour to the south, which opens to the Tasman Sea. The isthmus is the most southern section of the Northland Peninsula.
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.
The Upper Harbour Bridge is a motorway bridge in west Auckland, New Zealand. It is technically two bridges, spanning the Upper Waitematā Harbour, and connecting Hobsonville and Greenhithe. It is an important connection for State Highway 18, and became even more important as a component of the Western Ring Route when the route was completed on 2 July 2017.
The Auckland Northern Motorway in the Auckland Region of New Zealand links Central Auckland and Warkworth in the former Rodney District via the Hibiscus Coast and North Shore. It is part of State Highway 1.
The Newmarket Viaduct is a seven-lane state highway viaduct in Auckland, New Zealand. The 700 m long viaduct, which is up to 20 m high, carries the Southern Motorway over the Newmarket suburb.
The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson on land gifted by mana whenuahapū Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. It is New Zealand's leading financial hub, and the centre of the country's economy; the GDP of the Auckland Region was $126.917 billion in the year ending March 2022.
The Second Harbour Crossing is the name given to the proposed second transport link across the Waitematā Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand. Planners have also referred to new links across the harbour as the Additional Waitematā Harbour Crossing (AWHC) or the Waitematā Harbour Connections.
Auckland is the most populous city of New Zealand and the fifth largest city in Oceania. It has an urban population of about 1,478,800. It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and which has a total population of 1,739,300 as of June 2023. While Europeans continue to make up the plurality of Auckland's population, the city became multicultural and cosmopolitan in the late-20th century, with Asians accounting for 31% of the city's population in 2018. Auckland has the fourth largest foreign-born population in the world, with 39% of its residents born overseas. With its large population of Pasifika New Zealanders, the city is also home to the biggest ethnic Polynesian population in the world. The Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki Makaurau, meaning "Tāmaki desired by many", in reference to the desirability of its natural resources and geography.
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.
Blandford Park, in Auckland, New Zealand, was the home of association football in Auckland for much of the 20th century, and one of the country's main football grounds. Located in Grafton Gully, northeast of Grafton Bridge, roughly between the northern part of Whitaker Place and the Auckland Bowls Club in Grafton Mews, it was razed in the mid-1960s, and its site is now occupied by on- and off-ramps to the Auckland Central Motorway Junction.
Symonds Street is a street in Auckland, New Zealand's most populous city. The road runs southwest and uphill from the top of Anzac Avenue, through the City Campus of University of Auckland, over the Northwestern Motorway and Auckland Southern Motorway and to the start of New North Road and Mount Eden Road.
Symonds Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery and park in central Auckland, New Zealand. It is in 5.8 hectares of deciduous forest on the western slope of Grafton Gully, by the corner of Symonds Street and Karangahape Road, and is crossed by the Grafton Bridge. The street are named for William Cornwallis Symonds, a British Army officer prominent in the early colonisation of New Zealand. It has a Historic Place – Category I listing with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Maintenance and administration of the cemetery is provided by the Auckland Council.
The North Auckland and Northland (NAaN) grid upgrade project reinforced transmission into the Auckland Region and across the harbour to North Auckland and the Northland Region. It added new 220 kV transmission capacity to the National Grid by providing 37 km of underground cable between the Pakuranga, Penrose, and Albany substations.
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.
The Strand is a street in Auckland, New Zealand's most populous city. It connects the Ports of Auckland to the Auckland motorway network, and is the eastern end of State Highway 16.