Trips from Tamahere into Hamilton will be more direct and safer when a small part of the Hamilton section opens to traffic next week. The on-ramp connecting the Southern Interchange’s Alfred Main Drive to the city-bound lane of Cambridge Road/SH1 opens on Friday, 3 June.
The on-ramp will be the last in a series of new roads at the interchange to open.
The full 22km Hamilton section of the Waikato expressway is set to open in July, after facing multiple delays due to Covid-19.
This is the last piece in the 102km four-laning of SH1 from Bombay to the south of Cambridge and is expected to open to traffic mid-2022. The initial completion date was extended last year due to Covid-19 restrictions and nationwide material shortages.
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The Waikato Expressway is the key strategic corridor for the Waikato region; when complete, it will run 102km from the Bombay Hills to the south of Cambridge. It's claimed that once completed, the new road will reduce travel times between Auckland and Tirau by up to 35 minutes.
It's also hoped that the Expressway will reduce crashes, increase traffic capacity, take congestion away from communities like Huntly, Ngaruawahia and Cambridge, reduce fuel costs for motorists and contribute to economic growth.
Waikato District Council will also permanently close Newell Road where it meets Cambridge Road/SH1 when the expressway opens midway through this year.
The decision to close Newell Road was made at the end of a period of public consultation in 2018. The date for closure was linked to safer options being available when the Hamilton section of the Waikato Expressway opens to traffic.
The closure will be accompanied by appropriate No Exit signage and the intersection will fully disappear when Cambridge Road is upgraded – scheduled for 2024. A new route for travel from Hamilton to Tamahere via Bollard Road and Alfred Main Drive is open now, and a new route for travel from Tamahere to Hamilton will be completed soon when the Cambridge Road on-ramp opens on 3 June.
