Western Ring Route | |
---|---|
Upper Harbour Highway (SH 18) Upper Harbour Motorway (SH 18) Northwestern Motorway (SH 16) Southwestern Motorway (SH 20) | |
Route information | |
Length | 48 km (30 mi) |
History | First section completed in 1955. Route completed in 2017. |
Major junctions | |
North end | ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
South end | ![]() |
Location | |
Country | New Zealand |
Major cities | Greenhithe, Hobsonville, Massey, Te Atatu, Waterview, Mount Roskill, Onehunga, Mangere, Auckland Airport, Wiri |
Highway system | |
The Western Ring Route is a motorway system being constructed in Auckland, New Zealand. It currently runs along (from south to north) the entire Southwestern Motorway (State Highway 20), most of the Northwestern Motorway (part of SH 16), the entire Upper Harbour Motorway, and the entire Upper Harbour Highway (the last two forming SH 18). [1] When the Upper Harbour Highway is upgraded to motorway status, the route will surpass the Southern Motorway to become the longest motorway in New Zealand at 48 kilometres in length. It runs through Manukau, West Auckland, and the North Shore, bypassing the Auckland city centre and thus providing a second motorway route through the Auckland isthmus. [1]
The ring route had been planned as early as the first half of the 20th century. Some critics have alleged that the rerouting of State Highway 1 over the Auckland Harbour Bridge (to ensure toll revenues) was a primary contributor to the decades-long delays. The rerouting is alleged to have significantly contributed to the need for a massive motorway through the centre of Auckland, severely damaging inner city suburbs such as Freemans Bay and Grafton. [2]
The section of SH 20 from Queenstown Road to Richardson Road (the Mount Roskill Extension) opened on 15 May 2009. [3] The section of SH 18 connecting the Greenhithe Bridge and SH 16 (the Upper Harbour Motorway) and the extension of SH 16 to Brigham Creek Road opened in August 2011. [4]
Construction of the Waterview Connection began in late 2011 and it was opened to traffic on 2 July 2017. This completed the route as a highway, with a remaining section of SH 18 still to be upgraded to motorway standard. The opening of the Waterview Connection allows traffic to travel along the entire length of the highway, from SH 1 near Rosedale to SH 1 at Manukau.
The Upper Harbour Highway section will be upgraded to motorway status as part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project, with construction starting in 2018 and expected to be completed by 2022. [5]
Location | km | # | Destinations | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
0.0 | ![]() | Western Ring Route begins | |||
![]() | |||||
Caribbean Drive | |||||
Paul Matthews Drive | |||||
Unsworth Drive | Southbound exit only | ||||
2.4 | 2 | Route 26 Albany Highway | Motorway begins | ||
Greenhithe | 4.3 | 4 | Greenhithe Road | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |
6.2 | 6 | Tauhinu Road | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
7.4 | Upper Harbour Bridge over Waitematā Harbour | ||||
Hobsonville | 8 | Squadron Drive | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
9 | Brigham Creek Road – Whenuapai, Helensville | to ![]() | |||
10 | Trig Road | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||
Westgate | 11 | Route 32 Hobsonville Road | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
![]() | |||||
19.4 | Route 32 Hobsonville Road | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |||
Massey East | 17.8 | 18 | Royal Road | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
Lincoln North | 15.6 | 16 | Route 19 Lincoln Road – Henderson | ||
Te Atatū South | 13.5 | 14 | Route 13 Te Atatu Road – Henderson | ||
Avondale North | 12.3 | 12 | Patiki Road – Avondale, New Lynn | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |
10.8 | 11 | Rosebank Road | Westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
Point Chevalier | 8.2 | 8B | ![]() | Beginning of Waterview Connection | |
8.1 | 8A | Route 11 Great North Road – Avondale, New Lynn | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
![]() | |||||
Waterview Tunnel | |||||
Mount Roskill | |||||
Maioro Street | |||||
18 | Route 4 Dominion Road | ||||
Hillsborough | 16 | Route 15 Hillsborough Road | |||
15 | Route 12 Queenstown Road — Auckland City Centre | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |||
Onehunga | 13 | Neilson Street — Onehunga Wharf, Onehunga, Penrose, Mt Wellington | |||
Māngere Bridge over Manukau Harbour | |||||
Māngere Bridge | |||||
12 | Mahunga Drive — Māngere Bridge Township, Favona | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||
Māngere | 10 | Walmsley Road | Southbound | ||
Coronation Road | Northbound | ||||
9 | ![]() | No southbound entrance (use SH20B or Massey Road) Carriageway mainline connects north to west, traffic proceeding from/to south on motorway must 'exit'. | |||
7 | Route 14 Massey Road | ||||
Puhinui | 3 | ![]() | No northbound exit (use Cavendish Drive) Southbound entrance and connection to SH 20B and ![]() | ||
3 | Route 30 Cavendish Drive | No southbound exit (use Puhinui Road) Northbound entrance and connection to SH 20B and ![]() | |||
Manukau CBD | 2 | Lambie Drive — Manukau City Centre | |||
1 | ![]() | Western Ring Route ends | |||
![]() | |||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi |
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.
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.
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 Upper Harbour Bridge is a motorway bridge in west Auckland, New Zealand. It is technically two bridges, spanning an upper reach of the 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 Terrace Tunnel takes the Wellington Urban Motorway (SH1) under The Terrace in central Wellington, New Zealand. Opened in 1978, it is 460 metres in length.
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 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.
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 highway was first built in 1993. Throughout its current lifetime, it had underwent many upgrades to optimize traffic flow throughout the Waikato region, including various bypasses of most towns in the region, and lastly Hamilton in 2022.
Bike Auckland, formerly Cycle Action Auckland (CAA) is a pro-cycling advocacy group in Auckland, New Zealand. The 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.
State Highway 18 is a state highway that runs between the Auckland Northern Motorway on the North Shore and the Northwestern Motorway in West Auckland, New Zealand. The Upper Harbour Motorway forms most of its length as of 2016. SH 18 forms the northern part of the Western Ring Route, which continues from Waitakere south-east to Manukau.
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 ithmus, 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.
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.
The Waterview Tunnel is a twin road tunnel in central Auckland, New Zealand. At 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) long, it is New Zealand's longest road tunnel. The tunnel, with three lanes of road vehicle traffic in each direction, connects State Highway 20 in the south at Mount Roskill to State Highway 16 in the west at Point Chevalier as part of the Waterview Connection. Its opening completed the Western Ring Route motorway system.