New Zealand's first fully electronic road toll was one of the largest and most challenging roading construction projects.

The Northern Gateway toll road is the 7.5km extension of Auckland’s northern motorway. Completed in January 2009, at the time it was Transit New Zealand’s largest-ever capital project, with $365 million budget. A consortium, called the Northern Gateway Alliance, was responsible for the road’s project management, design and construction.

The consortium, formed in 2004 comprised Transit New Zealand (now Waka Kotahi), Fulton Hogan, Leighton Contractors, URS New Zealand, Tonkin & Taylor, and Boffa Miskell.

We contributed landscape design, ecological and landscape restoration, and environmental management services to the Alliance; and had a seat on the executive management team and board.

Client

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency

Location

Auckland

Project team

John Goodwin
Chris Bentley

Project date

2004 - 2009

Awards

Transportation Infrastructure category | New Zealand Engineering Awards
Concrete³ Sustainability Award | Cement and Concrete Association of New Zealand
Arthur Mead Award for the Environment and Sustainability | Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ)
Sustainability Award of Excellence | NZILA Resene Pride of Place Landscape Architecture Awards
Silver Award | Commercial • Industrial • Institutional Landscape Design | NZILA Resene Pride of Place Landscape Architecture Awards
Best Practice Award for Environmental Sustainability | Roading Excellence Awards
Supreme Environmental Award | Projects over $10 million | New Zealand Contractors Federation Awards

Boffa Miskell provided ecological assessments and advice during early feasibility, route alignment and designation studies and, again, during the notice of requirement and resource consent process completed in 2001. We also provided environmental management and landscape design services during the design and construction phases.

The Alliance was committed to minimising the environmental impact of the highway construction and to protecting and enhancing the environment wherever possible. We worked collaboratively with our project partners to achieve these objectives, including input to:

  • a best-fit route alignment integrated with the landscape and avoiding ecologically sensitive areas where possible;
  • a minimised footprint through reduced land clearance and careful management of works;
  • captured and relocated threatened species;
  • a net environmental benefit assessment system established to encourage improved environmental performance;
  • innovative culvert design to recreate in-stream habitat within culverts;
  • viaducts and tunnels designed to minimise forest and landscape disturbance and maintain ecological corridors;
  • daily input to construction management including site supervision to ensure good environmental practice in the field.

The Northern Gateway Toll Road is acknowledged for having set new benchmarks in environmental performance for the construction industry – a notable achievement, given that the route traversed important landscapes and ecologically sensitive environments.

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