Huge volumes of safety barrier go into Causeway Upgrade
Universal TAU-II™ Crash Cushion is a legacy product
Sh16 Causeway Upgrade project, and the completion of the Western Ring Route in Auckland, is part of the largest motorway projects ever undertaken in New Zealand. The route is also one of the Government's seven roads of national significance.
There are many pieces to the complex puzzle that makes up the Western Ring Route with projects at Waterveiw Connection, St Lukes, Lincoln Road, the Te Atatu Interchange and the Causeway Upgrade project - featuring many kilometres of road safety barrier from CSP - to all be completed by the time the Waterview tunnels open in 2017.
“The Causeway project starts from the Waterview Interchange and runs through to the bridge just before the Te Atatu off ramp,” explains Greg Arnold, Senior Quantity Surveyor for the Causeway Alliance. “It is 4.5kms of quite difficult terrain and must still function as a busy motorway while under construction. At the eastern end of the project we are responsible for the ground works and the Waterview Alliance is responsible for the flyovers.”
Traffic management and road development is happening in various stages so the Alliance can keep commuters moving during construction. “When you drive through this section of motorway you can see that we are raising both sides of the road by two metres with rock retaining which sits on top of silt and must have time to settle and compress before we can build the road on top,” says Greg. “Traffic will then be switched up onto the new road and the existing middle road will be filled in and rise up to the new level. The end result will be 11 lanes in total - two bus lanes and nine vehicle lanes - plus an improved cycleway.”
“This is one of the largest barrier projects we have ever supplied,” explains Bruce Stephens, Sales Engineer Auckland/ Northland for CSP. “In most cases large projects like this are supplied in stages, but for this project the request was for all product to be delivered at once - which we have successfully done. With 9004m of Nu-Guard® 31 Guardrail System, seven X-350 Terminal Ends, nine Trailing End Terminals and three TAU II™ Crash Cushions it was a major undertaking for us to produce that volume of product in a short timeframe. I am very grateful to our teams for making it happen.”
“CSP have been great to deal with and Bruce has helped whenever the design changed. Generally things are going very well and we are sticking to the programme deadline which is for completion by the end of 2016.”