NZ InfraWatch
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TRANSPORT
Ara Tūhono — Pūhoi to Wellsford
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency · Auckland
Four-lane expressway extension from Warkworth to Wellsford, continuing the Northern Motorway to reduce travel times to Northland. National's RoNS programme. Highly contested — Labour opposed; Greens oppose. No consent, no funding — decades away.
D
39/100 · At risk
Completion Probability — likelihood this proceeds on roughly its stated timeline.
Funding statusweight 30%
Delivery stageweight 25%
Election / policy riskweight 20%
Govt priority alignmentweight 12%
Project scaleweight 8%
Delivery agencyweight 5%
Key facts
- Region
- Auckland
- Sector
- Transport
- Status
- Planning
- Estimated value
- $7.5b
- Indicative completion
- 2040
- Funding status
- No Source
- Lead organisation
- Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
- Election risk
- Extreme
Election risk assessment
Extension of RoNS to Wellsford — major road investment under National. Would be cancelled under Labour/Green.
Government priority alignment
HIGH — RoNS extension toward Northland — GPS economic-growth priority (long-term).
Chronology
- 2009Pūhoi to Wellsford declared as Roads of National Significance — full expressway to Northland
- 2011Route designation study begins for Warkworth to Wellsford section
- 2015Pūhoi to Warkworth selected as first stage. Wellsford extension deferred
- 2021Labour cancels Ara Tūhono extension beyond Warkworth
- 2023National reinstates Warkworth to Wellsford expressway as RoNS. Business case commissioned
- 2028Business case and route designation — subject to environmental and economic approvals
- 2040Aspirational target — project is decades from construction start