[NZ] New Zealand | road infrastructure

[KIWIKAAS]

A little wisk through New Zealand.
Pop: 4200000
The state highway network of 10,894.9 (5973.8 km in North Island and 4921.1 km in South Island - August 2006) kilometres of major roads and motorways provides a strategic link to 82,000kms of local roads managed by territorial authorities. It is a national asset worth $12.511 billion and carries 50% of all New Zealand's traffic. There are 170 kilometres of motorway in the highway network (About the same distance end to end as from Amsterdam to Mechelen in Belgium)

New Zealand's motorways make up 3% of the total network length. They carry 9% of New Zealand's traffic.
The first section of motorway opened in December 1950.


The busiest stretch of State Highway 1 was just south of the Auckland Central Motorway Junction, with nearly 200000 vehicles each day. The least busy parts of the network are on State Highway 43 north-east of Whangamomona, with fewer than 150 vehicles in a day

A selection of a few routes.

State Highway 1F Far North


State Highway 1 North Island











CMJ Auckland. Interchange State Highways 1, 16 and 16E


State Highway 16 North island


State Highway 20 North island



Other North Island State Highways





State Highway 1 South Island










State Highway 7 South Island




State Highway 73 South Island


Other South Island State Highways

[KIWIKAAS]

State Highway 1 motorway (toll) extention (north of Auckland) ''Alpurt 2''.





State Highway 1. Waikato Expressway







State Highway 20 extention to interchange with State Highway 1




State Highway 20 extention through Mt Roskill (Auckland)



State Highway 20 Mangere Bridge duplication (capacity increase from 4 to 8 lanes)




State Highway 73 Christchurch. Southern Motorway extention

[KIWIKAAS]

Of the 170km of motorway in NZ aprox 105km can be found in the Auckland region. The busiest sections have daily average flows from 150000 to 200000 vehicles per day.

Northern Motorway S.Hwy1

Aproaching interchange. North Shore

Northern Mwy SH1

Harbour Bridge s.Hwy1

Local route signs


Grafton/ Port Mwy SH16

Southern Mwy SH1. Just south of the CBD. This section has a daily average of 196000 vehicles.

Greenlane interchange sign

Southern Motorway SH1. Junction SH2 (50km south of downtown Auckland)


Tauranga

[ChrisZwolle]

Excellent! The signage looks American. Too sad it's on the other side of the world for me, not likely i will visit soon...

[Sukkiri]

Not bad for a country of four million inhabitants, I like how the only motorways are in the cities and not in the countryside where they'd be underutilized and an eyesore. Lots of Japanese cars in NZ aswell!

[Verso]

Originally Posted by KIWIKAAS

Interesting-looking sign. The highways look so clean.

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by Chris1491

Excellent! The signage looks American. Too sad it's on the other side of the world for me, not likely i will visit soon...

Thanks for your interest Chris.
The signage is heavily based on the US. As a result you can see some of the inclarities inherent with that system. for example:

This section of motorway has 2 lanes exiting which is clear. What is less clear is that 2 lanes continue. The 3rd lane does not exit at Cook Street. The sign merely shows that there will be an exit from the running off the left lane after 1km.


This one is slightly clearer with the arrow ommitted from the main direction


This sign states that should you want to exit that the driver should stay in the left 2 lanes not that these lanes will exit.

[ChrisZwolle]

What font do they use? Interstate? It looks a bit like Clearview too.

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by Sukkiri

Not bad for a country of four million inhabitants, I like how the only motorways are in the cities and not in the countryside where they'd be underutilized and an eyesore. Lots of Japanese cars in NZ aswell!

I think about 85% of motorways in NZ are in urban enviroments. NZ is getting more rural motorways and (mainly) expressways but dont expect the country to have many of them. Currently a motorway is under contruction about 35km north of Auckland


and south of Auckland the Waikato Expressway is about 1/3 complete (it will ultimately mean that you will be able to drive 150km south from downtown Auckland on divided expresway and motrorway and all the way through from the northern end of the northern motorway 200km).

Newly finnished section of the Waikato Expressway


There is also a motorway and expressway planned and under construction to the north of Wellington.


In the South Island there are only 2 motorways at the moment. Christchurch-Kaipoi 10km and Dunedin-Mosgiel 10km (the worlds most southerly motorway).

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by Verso

Interesting-looking sign. The highways look so clean.

Interesting alright. I think it's bloody awful personally. As a visitor you could sure get mixed up.

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by Chris1491

What font do they use? Interstate? It looks a bit like Clearview too.

Could be Clearview?
Not sure there but it wouldnt surprise me since they have the habbit of following the US styles

[go_leafs_go02]

Why are some roads painted with a yellow line in the middle when others are white?

just curious, because it looks like both roads are 2-way roads based on the pictures posted.

[Alex Von Königsberg]

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

Why are some roads painted with a yellow line in the middle when others are white?

just curious, because it looks like both roads are 2-way roads based on the pictures posted.

When overtaking is permitted in both directions, they use a white single broken line (like in Europe). When it is permitted only in one direction, they use a solid yellow line and a broken white line right next to it (on the passing side). When overtaking is prohibited in both direction, a yellow solid double line is used just like in Canada and the US. I don't know the logic behind it though...

[Moveax]

This video (not mine by the way, just found it) has been posted before but I believe it is relevant. Video on SH1 entering Wellington.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O02rj75hFZs

[ChrisZwolle]

Any chance for an Auckland - Wellington motorway?

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

Why are some roads painted with a yellow line in the middle when others are white?

just curious, because it looks like both roads are 2-way roads based on the pictures posted.

Alex explained it pretty well. The yellow lines are no passing lines. Yellow basically means ''don't cross'', white meaning the opposite or as border marking.

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by Chris1491

Any chance for an Auckland - Wellington motorway?

No chance. In NZ motorways or expressways are generally built in response to traffic volume and safety and not with future growth in mind (as is the case with many of the motorway projects in Eastern Europe or Asia).
Although there are many sections that warrant 4-lane highway ie:10000+ vph most of the route is way under this. The ''Desert Rd'' in the middle of the North Island has a volume of around 3500-4000vpd which is way too low. Of the 700km between the 2 cities I think the most you can hope for is about 230km of motorway/expressway within the next 20 years or so, the rest being 2 lane highway with passing lanes every so many kms.

The ''Desert Road'' central North Island

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by Moveax

This video (not mine by the way, just found it) has been posted before but I believe it is relevant. Video on SH1 entering Wellington.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O02rj75hFZs

Yeah, thats a nice vid there

[Jean Luc]

Originally Posted by KIWIKAAS

In the South Island there are only 2 motorways at the moment. Christchurch-Kaipoi 10km and Dunedin-Mosgiel 10km (the worlds most southerly motorway).

Isn't there a motorway running north out of Dunedin for a short distance? See here: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-...2799&z=11&om=1

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by Jean Luc

Isn't there a motorway running north out of Dunedin for a short distance? See here: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-...2799&z=11&om=1

That road used to be called a motorway but the title was revoked about 10 years ago. It's what you would call a ''super 2'' in Australia (a 2 lane highway with overpasses). These days in NZ to be called a motorway the road must be at least 2 lanes each way, divided with grade seperated intersections only.