Aucklanders stuck with Warkworth's dreaded intersection for longer than expected

Friday, 1 April 2022

Dubbed Warkworth Ridge will add 650 houses to a commuter town with a population of 5000.

The ‘satellite’ town of Warkworth in North Auckland is being developed at breakneck speed in anticipation of a new billion dollar motorway, but the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) can’t say when the motorway will be completed.

Meanwhile, Auckland Transport’s $27 million Matakana Link Road, designed to help ease traffic at Warkworth’s loathed Hill Street intersection, is nearing completion, but it won’t be able to open.

Auckland Transport said it would have to wait until an intersection between the Link Road and the motorway had been completed by NZTA to open the road, and it hadn’t received any indication when that might be.

Auckland developer Templeton Group is pouring $350 million into a new suburb located directly at the end of the motorway which will also be accessed via the Matakana Link Road.

* Plans underway for Matakana Rd shortcut

Warkworth Ridge development has reached a milestone having shifted 250,000 square metres of earth.

* Construction set to start on Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway

This week Templeton reported that it had hit a milestone having moved 250,000 square metres of earth via 4000 dump truck movements.

NZTA’s motorway construction partner NX2 is a joint venture between Fletcher Construction and Spanish construction conglomerate Acciona.

Dubbed Warkworth Ridge, the 53 hectare development will add 650 houses to a commuter town with a population of 5000.

Other projects in the works in Warkworth include the Stubbs Farm development with more than 1000 homes, Warkworth South with around 1200 houses and Kaha Ake with around 650 houses.

Promotional materials for Warkworth Ridge say the new suburb is just 45 minutes drive from Auckland, or 35 minutes via the new motorway.

However, neither Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency nor its construction partner NX2 could say when the new Puhoi to Warkworth motorway would open.

An NX2 spokesperson told Stuff that NX2 could not reveal a new opening date while it was negotiating the associated costs of delays with the NZTA.

NZTA national manager commercial Andy Thackwray confirmed the agency was working on a revised programme of works with a “realistic timeframe”, and that negotiations around cost formed part of this.

Thackwray blamed difficulties obtaining building materials and the five weeks that Auckland was in level four lockdown last year for delays to the project, which had been scheduled to open in May this year.

“A huge amount of work has been done, but there is still more to do,” Thackwray said.

The Matakana Link Road, which runs through the new Warkworth Ridge development pictured here, is well underway.

Two thirds of the pavement, or roughly 100,000 tonnes, is yet to be laid, along with a myriad of other works including wetland planting, storm water infrastructure and safety barriers.

Are you a road contractor working in Warkworth? Contact jonathan.killick@stuff.co.nz

Warkworth Transport Forum chair and former civil engineer Dave Stott suspects that the motorway won’t be complete until late 2023.

He has been advocating to the NZTA to bring the motorway intersection with the Link Road forward to allow it to open, but said he hadn’t had much luck.

The community-based Transport Forum successfully lobbied the NZTA and Auckland Transport for funding for a new design of the Hill Street intersection.

However, Stott said by the time the project had obtained resource consent and the necessary land had been purchased, it would likely be 2024 before it was built.

Silverdale company Northern Arena has owned a site adjacent to the Warkworth Ridge development since 2018 but has had to await the completion of the Link Road before it can progress with plans for an aquatic centre.

Marketing manager Justin Byrne said the project was still on pause and the latest advice he had been given was that the new pools might not now be built until 2024.