Alliance completes $290M Christchurch Northern Corridor

The Christchurch Northern Corridor project on New Zealand’s South Island is now complete, improving travel times for city commuters.

Works on the project involved extending the Northern Motorway 12 kilometres through to QEII Drive.

The CNC Alliance took on the works, which was the first alliance contract of this size in the South Island.

Comprising the NZ Transport Agency, Christchurch City Council, Fulton Hogan, Aurecon and Jacobs, the alliance began construction on the project in November 2016.

Works included the addition of a third north and southbound lane on the Waimakariri Motorway Bridge and a clip-on cycle path. Crews also constructed a new four lane motorway south of the Waimakariri River.

Twelve bridges were constructed as part of the project. In total crews brought in 1.3 million cubic metres of rock and dirt from quarries to pack the 62 kilometres of road lanes down.

Upgrades were also made to QEII Drive, Cranford Street and the Cranford and Innes Street intersection.

Cyclists and pedestrians will also benefit from the project which features paths linking to existing and new cycled facilites in the area.

As part of the landscaping over 660,000 native plants and 1500 specimen trees have been planted.

In late 2021 crews will apply a final low-noise asphalt layer. Currently the project is chip sealed but crews will leave the road to weather for a time before the final asphalt layer is applied.

Landscaping work along the shared path and motorway is still ongoing and will continue until September 2021.