Ewen Bridge under construction

Ewen Bridge under construction in 1994

The Hutt River bifurcates the entire Hutt Valley, and in Hutt City there are only four road bridges crossing it.  The only bridge from the southwest connecting Petone and the southwest (including Western Hutt Railway Station, once called Lower Hutt Station) is the Ewen Bridge, which was in need of replacement by the late 1980s. It had itself replaced an earlier bridge many decades before (see Bridge Street between Marsden and Parliament Street as the site of the previous crossing), but was structurally in need of strengthening or replacement, and its piers increased the risk of flooding at this point in the Hutt River. The bridge also only had two lanes eastbound and one westbound, constraining the capacity to handle growing traffic. The old bridge also only had a footpath on one side.

The new Ewen Bridge was opened in 1996, with two lanes in each direction, and a shared footpath/cyclepath on each side. This article from the Evening Post dated from December 1994 depicts it under construction, and the closure and demolition of the Alicetown flyover, which separates traffic on Railway Avenue from Marsden/Victoria Streets (which themselves connect Petone, Alicetown and Normandale). The flyover was replaced, and the Ewen Bridge today remains a critical link between Hutt City centre, Petone and the Western Hutt hills, as the Dowse Drive Interchange on SH2 (Western Hutt Road) means the Ewen Bridge is a direct, traffic signal free link between Hutt City centre and Wellington. 

Ngauranga Interchange

It's 1982, and the National Roads Board (an arm of the Ministry of Works and Development (MOWD)) had approved the Ngauranga Interchange. This interchange which opened in 1984, finally linked the Wellington Urban Motorway to SH1 in Ngauranga Gorge, enabling the vastly underutilised capacity of the Urban Motorway to be used, and relieving chronic congestion at the Ngauranga intersection between the Hutt Road and Ngauranga Gorge Road/Centennial Highway (as Ngauranga Gorge's state highway was known). Of course having three lanes each way in Ngauranga Gorge coming to a halt at a traffic light controlled intersection saw significant traffic jams in the AM peak, and likewise in the PM peak traffic backed up south along the Hutt Road. Indeed before the Ngauranga Interchange, the Hutt Road had along much of its length from Ngauranga to Aotea Quay (as SH1) had a tidal flow lane that operated at peak times in the direction of peak flow.  One limitation of the Interchange, which was due to the limitations of the Urban Motorway, is that Cook Strait Rail Ferry (now Interislander) traffic, including heavy vehicles, would have to continue to exit at Ngauranga and use the Hutt Road and Aotea Quay ramps to access the ferry terminal (this is about to be addressed with construction of a new roundabout on Aotea Quay to enable traffic to exit the Urban Motorway at Aotea Quay and reverse to access the Interislander terminal).

This was one of the last major road projects in Wellington carried out by the MOWD before the National Roads Board and Ministry of Works were abolished, replaced by Transit New Zealand (as the combined state highway manager and land transport funding agency) and Works Corporation (which was subsequently privatised), which itself was subject to competition in highway construction as the sector was opened up to mandatory outsourcing.

The Ngauranga Interchange demonstrated some of the best construction and planning the MOWD did in its latter years, and has stood the test of time. It permanently relieved the congestion at the Ngauranga intersection, although today the key congestion comes from traffic between the Hutt and the Northern Suburbs/Porirua.  The Interchange itself was originally built with one lane dropping/feeding to and from the Urban Motorway, and the second lane breaking/merging. More recently a fourth lane was added by narrowing the shoulder, northbound from Aotea Quay to Ngauranga, relieving northbound congestion, and the southbound merge extended to enable smoother merging.

The legacy of the Ngauranga Interchange includes several other impacts:

1. SH1 status was removed from the Hutt Road and its Aotea Quay ramps and shifted to SH1 (but remained on the Aotea Quay motorway ramps and Aotea, Waterloo, Customhouse and Jervois Quays terminating at Taranaki St until the 1990s).
2. It enabled the Hutt Road/Kaiwharawhara and Ngauranga areas to grow their commercial and retail activities, as the removal of SH1 from that road enabled much easier access to those locations. 
3. It relieved the waterfront route along Aotea/Waterloo/Customhouse/Jervois Quays, as SH1 traffic was not required to use that route to get to Te Aro or other suburbs.
4. It saw the limitations of the end of the Urban Motorway at Ghuznee/Vivian St (with one Terrace Tunnel) become obvious, as congestion there and through Te Aro became a regular occurrence.
5. It gave Wellington one of the most dramatic and beautiful entrances by highway into a capital city anywhere in the world.

Below is a leaflet published by the Government Printer (another government agency privatised subsequently) promoting the Ngauranga Interchange before it was built (apologies for the writing/drawing in parts from school age me)

Ngauranga Interchange publicity leaflet front page

Ngauranga Interchange publicity leaflet page 2

Ngauranga Interchange publicity leaflet page 3

Ngauranga Interchange publicity leaflet page 4

Ngauranga Interchange publicity leaflet page 5

Ngauranga Interchange publicity leaflet page 6

Purpose of this blog

Welcome to this eclectic blog which contains snippets of New Zealand road infrastructure history almost entirely from the 1970s-1990s (with some elements before and after). It comes from my personal archive of material I have obtained since childhood and periodically in my travels since, and my interest in ensuring it is available to anyone with a wider interest in the topic.

It ranges from newspaper clippings, to leaflets and other items I have collected. With each item, I will write a little about why I think it is of historic significance, or how I got it (if that matters).

It has a focus on Wellington, where I grew up, but the generosity of umpteen people who knew I had this interest in my childhood saw me receive a range of objects that may be of interest.  I apologise in advance for some materials which are undated, as I was too young to realise that this might matter at a later date.

Any feedback is welcome. The order of what I post will depend both on when items are found as I go through boxes of stuff (so there may be no date order to anything), and how busy I am otherwise, so there will be days and weeks between posts from time to time.

I also intend to set up similar blogs for other modes of transport I have an interest in, including railways, airlines, shipping and urban public transport.