Waterview’s 2.4 km-long twin tunnels, up to 45 m beneath Avondale and Waterview, both three lanes wide, are the key feature of the new six-lane, 4.8 km-long motorway being built for the Transport Agency by the Well-Connected Alliance in west Auckland. 

Well-Connected Alliance, including NZTA, Fletcher Construction, McConnell Dowell Constructors, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Beca Infrastructure, Tonkin & Taylor, and Japanese construction company Obayashi Corporation, secured the contract for design, construction and operation of the Waterview Connection.

The project, value EUR858 million (NZ$1.4b), will join the Southwestern and Northwestern motorways (State Highways 20 and 16) to complete the city’s 48 km-long Western Ring Route by 2017, and will create a direct motorway link between the central business district (CBD) and international airport. The two tunnels between Waterview and Owairaka will pass below the hard-rock legacy of the region’s volcanic activity and will be excavated by an EPB designed by Herrenkencht and manufactured in China. The EPB (diameter 14.5 m, weight 3200 t, length 87 m), named Alice, will be launched before end-2013.

The Well-Connected Alliance has formed further partnerships with New Zealand precast concrete suppliers Wilson Tunnelling and Spanish tunnel controls specialists SICE (Sociedad Iberica de Constructiones Electrica) to manage the construction of the tunnel segments and longterm maintenance and operation. The tunnels will be lined with 2,414, 14 m-diameter rings of concrete, each 2 m-wide and comprising nine 10.5 t segments and one key. Click nz/16 for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/waterviewconnection/. 40/13.