History
The first section of the Southern Motorway opened on 16 July 1953, between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mount Wellington Highway (Exit 438). It was quickly extended southwards in 1955 to Redoubt Road to provide a higher-capacity and faster alternative to Great South Road between Ellerslie and Wiri.
In 1963, the motorway was extended at both ends, the northern terminus was moved north to Green Lane East and the southern terminus was moved south to Takanini to allow traffic to bypass Manurewa. Both ends were extended again in 1965, the northern end to St Marks Road at the southern end of the Newmarket Viaduct, the southern end to Great South Road at Runciman that is south of the current Drury interchange.
In 1966, the Newmarket Viaduct was opened, and the northern terminus was extended to Khyber Pass Road, bypassing Newmarket. An extension was also opened for northbound traffic to Symonds Street. In 1969, the motorway was extended to Wellesley Street, allow traffic in both directions to access the central city. A Symonds Street on-ramp for southbound traffic opened in 1971.
Much of the mid-1970s construction on the Southern Motorway involved building on-ramps and off-ramps in the Central Motorway Junction. Ramps to the western side of the CBD at Nelson Street and Hobson Street opened for southbound traffic in 1973 and northbound traffic in 1977. Ramps to Grafton Road, allowing access to the Port of Auckland, opened to southbound traffic in 1975 and northbound traffic in 1978.
In 1978, the southern end was extended to Great South Road at St Stephens on the northern side of the Bombay Hills. Also in 1978, the motorway was extended from Nelson Street/Hobson Street to the Northern Motorway at Cook Street/Wellington Street, allowing continuous motorway travel from Tristam Avenue on the North Shore to St Stephens. In 1988, ramps opened to allow direct motorway access between the Southern Motorway and the Northwestern Motorway.
In 1993, the southern end of the motorway was extended to Mill Road, near Bombay. The extension bypassed the traffic light-controlled crossroads at St Stephens, known to be an accident blackspot and causing delays of up to two hours during holiday periods. Accompanying the extension was the building of the first part of the Waikato Expressway, which allowed traffic from the Southern Motorway to have a clear run as far as the State Highway 2 interchange on the south side of the Bombay Hills.
In 2010 the interchange between the Southwestern Motorway and Southern Motorway at Manukau became fully operational.
Read more about this topic: Auckland Southern Motorway
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