The Waikato Expressway is one of New Zealand’s seven roads of national significance, designed to move people and freight between the five largest population centres safely and efficiently. Once complete, the Waikato Expressway will provide a continuous 102km divided four-lane highway between Auckland and Cambridge, reducing the length of State Highway 1 by six kilometres.

While the construction of the 7.2km section was completed in December 2012 by the Te Rapa Alliance, a consortium of Fulton Hogan, Opus International Consultants and NZTA, Fulton Hogan’s Waikato region was appointed to surface this entire new section of expressway twelve months later.

This has been the largest single surfacing job the Waikato region has undertaken. In total, 100,525m2 or 5,612 tonnes of OGPA were laid to an average depth of 29.5mm. The overlay went straight over the chipseal surface with only small sections of levelling required – 60 tonnes over the whole job.

This job saw the crews go back to basics, as it was paved without the use of mechanical levelling controls and the team achieving a NASRA score of 23 for the project. Regional Manager, Kerry Watkins says; “The success of the smooth ride is due to a team effort by our stabilising, pavement construction, sealing, asphalt plant and asphalt paving teams. Everyone involved each produced quality results which led to an extremely pleasing end result for our customer.”

The job was completed over 17 shifts, the team’s biggest production night saw 503 tonnes laid with no injuries achieving Fulton Hogan’s goal of zero harm for the duration of the project.

This section is one of seven remaining sections of the Waikato Expressway to be built. Once complete, the Waikato Expressway will provide a four-lane route from the Bombay Hills to south of Cambridge.