Expanding major roading infrastructure whilst protecting important heritage buildings.

Victoria Park Tunnel (VPT) demonstrates that a major roading project can generate new and enhanced public spaces for all users, along with multiple art projects, heritage restoration and re-use, exciting architecture, better connections, and a stronger sense of culture and place. This was achieved through the combined efforts of urban design, landscape architecture, art, architecture, and heritage disciplines.

The $340m Victoria Park Tunnel (VPT) was one of seven state highway projects identified by the Government as a Road of National Significance and essential to New Zealand’s economic prosperity. The Victoria Park Tunnel project will increase the vehicle carrying capacity over the 2.2km of State Highway 1 between the Wellington Street overbridge and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

This is one of the busiest sections of road in New Zealand for both personal and business trips. Within the local context the landscape and urban design masterplan set the objectives of enriching the motorway environment by engaging it with its unique location and of making better spaces for people within and around the motorway.

Location

Auckland

Worked with

Beca
Fletcher Construction
Higgins
Kupenga Design
NZTA
Parsons Brinkerhoff
Salmond Reed
Warren & Mahoney

Project date

2005 - 2012

Awards

Excellence Award for a Major Road Project | Roading Excellence Awards
Best Practice Award for Environmental Sustainability | Roading Excellence Awards

The project involved the construction of a 450m cut-and-cover tunnel for three lanes of northbound traffic, reconfiguration of the Victoria Park flyover for four southbound lanes, and widening the motorway through St Mary's Bay by one more lane in each direction. The motorway’s visual impact on the local environment is mitigated by landscaping and by incorporating art into the barriers and retaining walls.

In delivering on these roading objectives the project has achieved significantly better local places and spaces by reconnecting and creating new routes across and along the motorway corridor as a result of the landscape and urban design initiatives.

Urban design initiatives improved the amenity and connectivity of the local area. Among them is a new public plaza in front of the landmark Rob Roy Hotel, the footbridge over the motorway to Westhaven reconnects land and sea in St Marys Bay, and a new walkway through St Marys Bay, protected from the motorway by a transparent noise wall links to the historic Jacobs Ladder.

Additionally, three important heritage structures – the1886 Rob Roy Hotel, the Campbell Free Kindergarten and the Jacobs Ladder Staircase – were protected and restored. A new skatepark was part of the restoration of Victoria Park following the tunnel construction. 

The urban design concepts drew from the landscape, cultural values, history and geology at a broad scale for the VPT route and immediate context. Through consultation with Iwi, Auckland Council, and the Alliance design team, a number of these concept ideas have been brought through to inform the design of motorway features and the surrounding urban landscape.

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