3 Sept 2001

Ring Road

When the Woolston-Burwood Expressway is in place it will complete the last link in Christchurch’s eastern ring road system.

The ring road had its beginnings in the 1960s with the production of the city’s Master Transportation Plan.

This eastern link will be the main north route for heavy traffic to and from the Port of Lyttelton.

All three stages of this section of the ring road is being built as a joint Christchurch City Council-Transit NZ project, with the Council responsible for professional services, design, project management and contract supervision, with Transit NZ contributing to the construction costs.

Stage 1A was completed in August last year. This section, already opened from Travis Road to New Brighton Road and is named Anzac Drive.

This section ends at a roundabout in New Brighton Road with a new bridge to be opened as part of Stage 1B on 19 September.

When the road is opened it will be two lanes but provision has been made for a four-lane highway.

An off-road cycle-walk way is provided the whole length of the new road.

The part of Stage 1B, south of New Brighton Road, follows a corridor that was set aside for roading many years ago.

Much of this section of the road site was filled with demolition materials over the years and some excavation had to be done in preparation for the new road. Back filling was done with sand taken from Christchurch sewage treatment station at Bromley. This became available from the $33.7 million upgrading of the facility.

Few properties were affected along the corridor. Some land was bought from the Wainoni School and nearby kindergarten.

Also, some open land was bought at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Drive end of the section to provide a two-lane roundabout.

Construction of the first section of the expressway - from QE 11 Drive to the New Brighton Road roundabout - meant that Barkers Road was stopped to through traffic.

The final stage of the expressway, about 1.4km will complete the link to the port. It will run from Eureka Street, across Pages Road to join Bexley Road at Birch Street.

The ring road route then follows Bexley Road to Dyers Road, through the wastewater treatment ponds, and to the Lyttelton Road Tunnel Road.

Work on Stage 2 should start in 2002 with completion in November that year.

Once the expressway section is finished it will be taken over by Transit NZ as a state highway, says the Project Manger, Jeanette Ward.