This is a list of motorways and expressways in New Zealand, including some proposed and under construction. There are currently 416 km of motorways and expressways in New Zealand. 19 km are currently under construction, with a further 46 km expected to be completed by 2029, at which time a total of 481 km of motorway and expressway is expected.
Expressways in New Zealand are high standard all-purpose roads, usually dual carriageway, mainly for through traffic with no restrictions. Intersections may be controlled at-grade with roundabouts or traffic signals, or fully grade separated. [1] [2] Although there are no legal restrictions to pedestrian, cycle and animal traffic (as are applied to motorways,) pedestrian and animal traffic is strongly discouraged. [3]
Motorways in New Zealand are dual carriageway roads designed for efficient high volume motor vehicle traffic. They have a no stopping restriction and are closed to pedestrian, cycle and animal traffic. Intersections are grade-separated. [1] [4]
Name | State Highway(s) | Type | Length | First section opened |
---|---|---|---|---|
Auckland Northern Motorway | SH 1 | Motorway | 58 km (36 mi) | 1959 |
Auckland Southern Motorway | SH 1 | Motorway | 44 km (27 mi) | 1953 |
Waikato Expressway | SH 1 | Expressway | 101 km (63 mi) | 1995 |
Kāpiti Expressway | SH 1 | Expressway | 31 km (19 mi) | 2017 |
Transmission Gully Motorway | SH 1 | Motorway | 27 km (17 mi) | Early 2022 |
Johnsonville–Porirua Motorway | SH 1; SH 59 | Motorway | 11 km (7 mi) | 1950 |
Wellington Urban Motorway | SH 1 | Motorway | 7 km (4 mi) | 1969 |
Christchurch Northern Motorway | SH 1; SH 74 | Motorway | 16 km (10 mi) | 1967 |
Western Belfast Bypass | SH 1 | Motorway | 5 km (3 mi) | 2017 |
Dunedin Southern Motorway | SH 1 | Expressway (Kensington–Lookout Point) Motorway (Lookout Point–Mosgiel) | 13 km (8 mi) | 1972 |
Tauranga Eastern Link | SH 2 | Expressway (Te Maunga–Papamoa) Motorway (Papamoa–Paengaroa) | 23 km (14 mi) | 2015 |
Northwestern Motorway | SH 16 | Motorway | 21 km (13 mi) | 1952 |
Upper Harbour Motorway | SH 18 | Motorway | 12 km (7 mi) | 2007 |
Southwestern Motorway | SH 20 | Motorway | 24 km (15 mi) | 1977 |
Auckland Airport Motorway | SH 20A | Motorway | 4 km (2 mi) | 1997 |
Christchurch Southern Motorway | SH 76; SH 1 | Motorway | 19 km (12 mi) | 1981 |
Name | State Highway(s) | Type | Length | Expected opening |
---|---|---|---|---|
Takitimu North Link (Stage 1: Tauranga to Te Puna) | SH 2 | Expressway | 7 km (4 mi) | early 2028 [5] |
Manawatū-Tararua Highway | SH 3 | Expressway | 12 km (7 mi) | mid 2025 |
Name | State Highway(s) | Type | Length | Expected opening | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Takitimu North Link (Stage 2: Te Puna to Ōmokoroa) | SH 2 | Expressway | 7 km (4 mi) | 2034 [6] | |
Whangarei to Marsden Point | SH 1 | Expressway | 22 km (14 mi) | Unknown | |
Kāpiti Expressway (Ōtaki to north of Levin) | SH 1 | Expressway | 24 km (15 mi) | 2030 | |
Brynderwyn Bypass | SH 1 | Expressway | 50 km (31 mi) | 2034 |
From the Central Motorway Junction in central Auckland via the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the North Shore to Warkworth.
From the Southern Motorway in Manukau City to the Northwestern Motorway at Waterview.
From central Auckland via Manukau City to the Bombay Hills and transitioning into the Waikato Expressway.
Connecting the Northwestern and Northern Motorways via the Upper Harbour Bridge. Construction of the Northern Corridor connection between the Northern and Upper Harbour Motorways commenced in 2018, and the full interchange opened in 2023. [7]
From the Southwestern Motorway in Māngere to George Bolt Memorial Dr, Auckland Airport
An expressway between the Southern Motorway at Bombay and Cambridge, By 2007 SH 1 between Longswamp and Rangiriri was three lanes with a median barrier. In 2012 the Te Rapa Spur was opened, followed by the Ngāruawāhia section in 2013. The Cambridge bypass opened on 16 December 2015, six months ahead of schedule. The route has now been fully designated, and funding was secured for the Huntly and Hamilton sections. The Huntly section opened in March 2020, but the Hamilton section was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then the Hamilton Section was completed on the 12th July 2022 and was opened to traffic on the 14th of July 2022. The 15 km Cambridge Section now has a 110kmph speed limit for light vehicles as of 11 December 2017.
From Pyes Pa to Chapel Street near the city centre. An interchange exists with Tamatea Arikinui Drive, along with a "coat-hanger" interchange, which is used with Elizabeth Street and heads north towards Mt Maunganui. The section from Pyes Pa to the SH 2 interchange is tolled. From 1 August 2015 it was added to the New Zealand state highway network as part of SH 29. [8]
From 15th Avenue to just before Bethlehem Town Centre, with interchanges at Cambridge Road, Waihi Road and Takitimu Drive (Pyes Pa - City Expressway).
Connects Tauranga to Paengaroa (with SH 33) via Papamoa, bypassing Te Puke. In late 2006 the first phase was opened from Maungatapu to Bayfair. Full motorway was completed in 2015 with the tolled section between Papamoa and Paengaroa opened to the public in August that year. The tolled section from Papamoa to Paengaroa now has speed limit for light vehicles of 110 kmph as of 11 December 2017
From Hawke's Bay Airport near Napier to Pakipaki, south of Hastings. The entire expressway is part of SH 2, with approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) also concurrent with SH 50.
Approximately 11 km (6.8 mi) in length, this is New Zealand's first motorway; the first section opening in 1950. [9] [10] The section of the motorway between the southern terminus at Johnsonville and the interchange with the Transmission Gully Motorway forms part of SH 1, with the small 2.1 km (1.3 mi) section north of this point forming part of SH 59. [11]
From Ngauranga to Te Aro, 7 km (4.3 mi)
The Kāpiti Expressway is a four-lane grade-separated expressway, stretching 33 km (21 mi) from Mackays Crossing north of Paekākāriki to just north of Ōtaki on the Kapiti Coast. It carries traffic through Raumati, Paraparaumu, Waikanae and Ōtaki. The section from Mackays Crossing to Raumati South was completed in 2007 with the grade separation of the Mackays railway level crossing. Work on the Raumati to Peka Peka section started in December 2013 [12] and opened on 24 February 2017, [13] with minor finishing works completed by July. Construction of the section from Peka Peka north to Ōtaki commenced in late 2017 and opened in December 2022.
Officially opened on 30 March 2022, [14] from Mackays Crossing near Paekākāriki to the Johnsonville-Porirua Motorway in Linden, bypassing Centennial Highway.
From the Wellington Urban Motorway at Ngauranga through the Hutt Valley to the Fergusson Drive intersection at Maoribank in northern Upper Hutt. It has three names: Hutt Road from Ngauranga to Petone, Western Hutt Road from Petone to Silverstream, and River Road from Silverstream to Maoribank. 30 km (19 mi).
The section south of Melling is dual carriage and is fully grade separated. The section from Melling north to Silverstream is dual carriage with a mixture of at-grade and grade separated intersections. The section north of Silverstream is a 2+1 road with at grade intersections.
From north of Kaiapoi over the Waimakariri River through to the northern suburb of Belfast. Its southernmost interchange (Kainga/Marshland) is unusual in that northbound traffic merges from the right, while southbound traffic is carried on a large loop to the right up and over the onramp. The reason for this design was to accommodate a future southern extension into central Christchurch, with the northbound onramp being the first part of the northbound carriageway. Northbound there are three more interchanges; Tram Road (Oxford), north off, south on; Kaiapoi (diamond interchange); and Lineside Road (SH 71 to Rangiora), north off, south on. It is dual carriageway from Belfast (Main North Road) to Lineside Road, single lane each way with no median strip to Woodend.
Short motorway bypassing a part of southern Christchurch city. Lost its status as a motorway after plans to extend the original section (between Curletts Road and Barrington Street, which was built in the early 1980s) stalled. Since 2012, the road has been extended Curletts Road to Halswell Junction Road with the original section widened to four lanes and interchanges at both Curletts Road and Barrington Street), thereby regaining motorway status. In 2020, extended to rejoin SH 1 at Templeton and continue alongside SH 1 until just west of Rolleston.
From the intersection of Ferry and Dyers Roads along Tunnel Road through the Lyttelton Tunnel to the intersection of Norwich Quay and Simeon Quay. It is single lane with interchanges at Bridle Path and Port Hills Road. There is a passing lane southbound from the Port Hills Road interchange.
The motorway links directly from the Christchurch Northern Motorway, at Chaneys interchange, to Johns Road at the Clearwater roundabout, bypassing the current section of State Highway One through the Belfast urban area. [15]
This undivided highway had its "motorway" signs removed in 2002 [16] , and is now officially called the Dunedin-Waitati Highway, although it is still referred to by Dunedinites as "the northern motorway".
It runs from Pine Hill to Waitati, and is the main route north from Dunedin.
From Dunedin CBD to Caversham, SH1 has been widened to a four-lane road over its full length. [17] It becomes the Dunedin Southern Motorway at its western end, close to Lookout Point. At its eastern end, it joins Dunedin's central city one-way street system.
This route runs from South Dunedin to Mosgiel. The section from Lookout Point at the southwestern end of Caversham, past the outer suburbs of Green Island, Abbotsford and Fairfield, to the intersection with SH 87 at Mosgiel, is classified as motorway. It is one of the southernmost motorways in the world. The length of the motorway is 13 km.
A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, and partial controlled-access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a controlled-access highway, including limited or no access to adjacent property, some degree of separation of opposing traffic flow, use of grade separated interchanges to some extent, prohibition of slow modes of transport, such as bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles or ridden horses, or self-propelled agricultural machines; and very few or no intersecting cross-streets or level crossings. The degree of isolation from local traffic allowed varies between countries and regions. The precise definition of these terms varies by jurisdiction.
The Pacific Motorway is a motorway in Australia between Brisbane, Queensland, and Brunswick Heads, New South Wales, through the New South Wales–Queensland border at Tweed Heads.
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.
A two-lane expressway or two-lane freeway is an expressway or freeway with only one lane in each direction, and usually no median barrier. It may be built that way because of constraints, or may be intended for expansion once traffic volumes rise. The term super two is often used by roadgeeks for this type of road, but traffic engineers use that term for a high-quality surface road. Most of these roads are not tolled.
The Wellington Urban Motorway, part of State HIghway 1, is the main 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.
The Dunedin Southern Motorway is the main arterial route south from the South Island city of Dunedin, part of New Zealand's State Highway 1. Despite its name, only a portion of the route is officially classified as motorway. The route is the southernmost section of median-divided highway in the world.
The Johnsonville–Porirua Motorway is a motorway in Wellington, New Zealand. The majority of the motorway forms part of State Highway 1, the main route of traffic in and out of the city, with the northernmost 2.1 km (1.3 mi), formerly part of SH 1 until 7 December 2021, designated as State Highway 59. Completed in the 1950s, it was New Zealand's first motorway.
State Highway 2 runs north–south through eastern parts of the North Island of New Zealand from the outskirts of Auckland to Wellington. It runs through Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, Hastings and Masterton. It is the second-longest highway in the North Island, after State Highway 1, which runs the length of both of the country's main islands.
The Waikato Expressway is a dual carriageway section of State Highway 1 in New Zealand's Waikato region. Constructed in stages, it forms part of the link between Auckland and Hamilton. Currently stretching from Auckland to south of Cambridge, the first section of the highway was built in 1993. Throughout its lifetime, it has undergone many upgrades to optimise traffic flow throughout the Waikato region, including various bypasses of many towns in the region, culminating with Hamilton in 2022.
The Hutt Expressway is a 3-4 lane divided highway running from the Wellington Urban Motorway at Ngauranga, past Lower Hutt and central Upper Hutt, to the intersection with Fergusson Drive in Maoribank in north-eastern Upper Hutt. State Highway 2 officially continues north of Maoribank to Te Mārua, Kaitoke, and over the Rimutaka Hill to Wairarapa, but this section is two lanes undivided and is covered in the main State Highway 2 article. The names Hutt Expressway and Hutt Motorway are not official, and actually refers to three different roads: Hutt Road from the Ngauranga Interchange to the Petone Overbridge, Western Hutt Road from the Petone Overbridge to the Silverstream Bridge, and River Road from Silverstream Bridge to Maoribank.
The Hawke's Bay Expressway, known also as the Napier-Hastings Expressway, runs from Hawke's Bay Airport, through Napier and Hastings, and ends at Pakipaki, just south of Hastings, a total length of 24 km. It is part of State Highway 2.
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 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.
State Highway 73 is a major east-west South Island state highway in New Zealand connecting Christchurch on the east coast with Cass/Hokitika via the Southern Alps. It is mostly two lane, with some single-lane bridges north of Springfield but is mostly dual carriageway in Christchurch. The fourth and fifth-highest points of New Zealand's state highway network are on this road at Porters Pass and Arthur's Pass respectively.
State Highway 74 is a state highway in New Zealand servicing the eastern suburbs of Christchurch. Mostly two-lane, it is composed of limited-access expressways, with part of the highway as the Christchurch-Lyttelton Motorway, and connects the city to its port town of Lyttelton.
State Highway 76 (SH 76) is a state highway in Christchurch, New Zealand. This highway was gazetted in 2012 after stage 1 of the Christchurch Southern Motorway was completed. Beforehand, much of SH 76 was part of SH 73 and included the former two-lane Christchurch Arterial Motorway, which was upgraded to four lanes. SH 76 includes the entire length of the Christchurch Southern Motorway and forms the most direct route from the south of Christchurch to the city centre and Lyttelton.
The Western Corridor is a road in Christchurch, New Zealand which connects the suburb of Belfast, New Zealand, in the north to Hornby in the south and connects the Canterbury region to Christchurch Airport. Most of the traffic on the corridor heads to the city, the airport, Belfast or Hornby, while 15% of traffic travels further north or south.
The Kāpiti Expressway is a four-lane grade-separated expressway on New Zealand's State Highway 1 route through the Kāpiti Coast north of Wellington. From the northernmost terminus of the Transmission Gully Motorway at Mackays Crossing just north of Paekākāriki, it extends northwards 31 km (19 mi) to just north of Ōtaki, bypassing the former two-lane route through Raumati South, Paraparaumu, Waikanae, Peka Peka, Te Horo and Ōtaki.
State Highway 59 (SH 59) is a New Zealand state highway in the Wellington Region linking Mackays Crossing to Linden. It came into existence on 7 December 2021, prior to the opening of the Transmission Gully Motorway, and consists of the former route of State Highway 1 between Mackays Crossing and Linden.