The new bypass road is open

The new bypass road opened at dawn on October 22 2025.

New Bypass road under construction.

The big guy rolls into town

Work is taking shape on the Lower Queen Street Bridge replacement, and we’ve just welcomed some impressive machinery to help us along the way.

The new bridge will be bigger and better, designed to let water flow more freely during heavy rain and help reduce the risk of flooding.

It’s been a busy few weeks on site. Crews have already relocated three large sewer pipes, along with two raw water lines and a water main. Raw water is the water that comes from the main bore before it gets treated.

Work is also progressing well on the construction of the temporary bypass road.

The real star of the show arrived last week – a massive 250-tonne crawler crane. This giant piece of equipment will take care of the heavy lifting, driving piles deep into the ground for the temporary bridge on the bypass road, and then moving on to the new permanent bridge. It arrived in pieces on nine truck and trailer units and rebuilt on site.

Piling work will be underway for two to three months leading up to Christmas, and while it will be a bit noisy at times, it’s an exciting sign of progress.

Overnight road closures and piling noise

Work is ramping up on the site of our Lower Queen Street bridge replacement with the arrival of a massive piece of equipment.

Our main contractor, Fulton Hogan, is bringing a 250-tonne crawler crane onto site by nine trucks and will be erected on an especially strengthened pad. (Picture on next page)

We need to close Lower Queen Street overnight next Wednesday 3 September from 6pm till 6am the following morning for erection of the crane.

The road will need to be closed again, the following night, Thursday 4 September as we realign two large water mains.

During the overnight closures vehicles will need to use the same detour route as previously, along McShane Road.

The giant crane will take care of the heavy lifting, driving piles deep into the ground for the temporary bridge on the bypass road, before moving on to piling the new permanent bridge.

The piling work will be underway for two to three months leading up to Christmas, and it will be a bit noisy at times, but if everything goes to plan, we will be opening the temporary bypass road in October.

Further Lower Queen Street night closures

08 October 2025

We’re about to mark a significant milestone in the project to improve Borck Creek bridge on Lower Queen Street, the opening of the temporary bypass road.

But to get the final touches done, there will be further overnight road closures before we open the temporary bypass road around the main construction site.

To install a watermain, which is the final re-alignment of the underground water and wastewater services, we need to shut the road between 6.00pm on Tuesday 14 October and 6.00am the following morning.

The overnight closures on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 October will also include the LQS-McShane Road intersection. This means vehicle access between Lower Queen Street and State Highway 6 will be via Swamp or Lansdowne Roads.

The following week, on Tuesday 21 October there will be overnight work on the site between 6.00pm and 6.00am to complete road marking and the realignment of electrical cables. The road will not be fully closed and there will be stop/go traffic management.

The new bypass road will open to traffic at 6.00am on Wednesday 22 October.

On Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 October there will be further night work under stop/go traffic management to put finishing touches on this phase of the project.

Once this work is finished the construction team will turn their attention to building the new bridge.

Little bridge gets a big upgrade

Many people probably don’t realise it, but there’s a small bridge on Lower Queen Street, a small bridge that is about to get a major upgrade.

Borck Creek runs under the Lower Queen Street bridge next to Headingly Lane, but it’s not wide enough to pass sufficient stormwater flow. The new larger bridge will ensure water can flow away better during heavy rain, reducing the risk of flooding with further work being done downstream to widen the channel out to the estuary.

The current bridge is about 14 metres long and is to be replaced by a new 48-metre-long structure which will allow the channel under it to be widened.

The project has been planned for several years and has a budget of around $11.5 million. It will take up to 14 months to complete.

Why is this work needed?

Borck Creek is one of the critical watercourses in the Richmond catchment serving a 1,400-hectare catchment area. It has gone through a significant journey of planning to secure a corridor not only for the use of stormwater relief but also providing public amenity and ecological value.

The Borck Creek development is a long-term project. Currently this small bridge creates a bottle neck in this part of the stormwater network. The new longer bridge is vital to ensure large volumes of accumulated water can easily and quickly flow out into the Waimea Estuary in a large flood.

Bypass road route

The temporary slip road around the construction site will meet full road construction standards to provide a quality surface for all users, including heavy vehicles.

There will be full entry to Pinnacle House at all times.

The image below shows the bypass route. Click on image to enlarge.

Traffic management

There will be a couple of short periods when the road will still need to be closed during the construction phase. Where feasible, we will schedule these outside peak hours.

We will share any road closure information via the Antenno app – download it for free from the app store on your phone.

You can also click the follow button in the banner at the top of this page to receive updates.