Final link in Christchurch’s eastern ring road to open 29 April
24 April 2003
The final link in Christchurch’s eastern ring road is to be officially
opened on Tuesday morning (29 April) and open to all traffic from midday.
The last part of the network, south of the Avon River from Eureka
Street to Birch Street, completes the expressway corridor from
Main North Road at St Bedes College to Dyers Road and on to the Tunnel Road
and Lyttelton.
The $16 million roading project included building a 50m three-lane
bridge over the Avon, which opened in September 2001.
With the expressway’s completion, it is expected that Transit NZ will
make it State Highway 74. At the moment SH 74 gives access to the
port from the north through the central city.
Work on the final piece of
the puzzle started in July last year.
What was made was a two-lane road south of Bexley Road with a cycle
and pedestrian pathway on its south side. A roundabout at Pages-Bexley
was removed
and traffic lights have been installed where the new expressway
crosses Pages Road.
City Councillor Denis O’Rourke says the work has created an efficient
and safe road for heavy traffic linking the Port of Lyttelton to the state
highway system.
“
It completes the ring road system Christchurch has needed for so
long,” Cr O’Rourke says. “The new expressway relieves
pressure on local streets that were not designed to carry arterial traffic,
such as Bexley Road, ” Cr O’Rourke says.
“
It’s also one of the city's most attractive arterial roads. The City
Council is proud to have achieved this with assistance from Transfund and
Transit New Zealand. ”
The
job involved the permanent closures of the expressway ends of Eureka,
Carisbrooke, Bexley, Brook and Birch. Also made was a park-like area opposite
Carisbrooke Street, with the riverbank changed to make it easier
to get access to the water and other work done to help reduce the
effects
of flooding.
The existing cycleway along the riverbank has been kept. Final
landscaping around the new section of road is not due to be finished
until July.
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