Thursday, September 29, 2011

Kilroy Was Here

You don't have to be a graffiti tagger to leave your mark on the Newmarket Viaduct.
This Saturday 1st.October, you can sign your name inside a huge 80-tonne segment of concrete at Mahuru Street in Newmarket. Later it'll be lifted up into place to form a section of the new northbound viaduct.
The Newmarket Viaduct, considered one of NZ's most distinctive engineering features, carries the Southern Motorway over the suburb of Newmarket. It was finished in 1966 for NZ$2.26m. Due to concerns about earthquakes and its increasing inability to handle peak traffic, it's being replaced with a stronger wider structure. The original cost of $150m is currently standing at $195m.
The NZTA has already installed 97 of 234 concrete bridge sections for the new northbound viaduct. 21 more segments are due to be in place by the end of this week. Construction on the new northbound section began in July, and it's due to open to traffic next year (the southbound viaduct opened last year).
Built right over the heads of buildings with very little disruption at all, Auckland will have a completely new Newmarket Viaduct, standing alongside where the original structure has stood for the last 50 years. So perhaps in another 50 years (though hopefully much longer!), when this new viaduct is deconstructed, your name will be revealed for future generations...
Event: Sat.01 October, 12-2pm, Mahuru Street (it runs parallel to Broadway and between Nuffield Street and St Marks Road), Newmarket, Auckland.
[...with thanx to AKT]

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