The Hutt Expressway (often erroneously referred to as the Hutt Motorway) is a 3-4 lane divided highway running from the Wellington Urban Motorway at

Ngauranga Ngauranga is a suburb of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, in the lower North Island. Situated on the western bank of Wellington Harbour, it lies to the north of the centre of the city. The name comes from the Maori-language ''ngā ūra ...

, past

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

and central

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city cent ...

, to the intersection with Fergusson Drive in

Maoribank Maoribank is a suburb of Upper Hutt, located 2–3 km east-northeast of the city centre. It was predominantly developed between 1950-1970 and had a population of just less than 1000 at the 2013 Census. It is located at the base of the Easte ...

in north-eastern Upper Hutt. State Highway 2 officially continues north of Maoribank to

Te Mārua Te Mārua (previously also known as Te Marua) is the easternmost urban suburb of Upper Hutt. For reasons of location and distance from the city, the area is often classified as rural. Te Mārua is well known for its Plateau Reserve where remna ...

Kaitoke Kaitoke (sometimes called Pakuratahi), part of Upper Hutt City, is a locality in the southern North Island of New Zealand. It is located at the northern end of the Hutt Valley, 45 kilometres northeast of Wellington City and six kilometres from the ...

, and over the

Rimutaka Hill The Remutaka Range (spelled Rimutaka Range before 2017) is the southernmost range of a mountain chain in the lower North Island of New Zealand. The chain continues north into the Tararua, then Ruahine Ranges, running parallel with the east co ...

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...

, but this section is two lanes undivided and is covered in the main State Highway 2 article. The names Hutt Expressway and Hutt Motorway are not official, and actually refers to three different roads: Hutt Road from the Ngauranga Interchange to the Petone Overbridge, Western Hutt Road from the Petone Overbridge to the Silverstream Bridge, and River Road from Silverstream Bridge to Maoribank.

Design

South of the Silverstream Bridge intersection the road is mainly two lanes each way, with a three-lane northbound section just south of the Belmont Hills intersection, and is dual carriageway throughout. North of the Silverstream Bridge intersection, the road is dual carriageway as far as Gibbons Street, except for a small section on the Moonshine Bridge across the Hutt River, with the Gibbons Street to Maoribank section being single carriageway. Except for the Moonshine Bridge and

Totara Park ''Podocarpus totara'' (; from the Maori-language ; the spelling "totara" is also common in English) is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane and ...

to Maoribank section, the road has three lanes in total: two in one direction and one in the other, alternating every kilometre (a

2+1 road 2+1 road is a specific category of three-lane road, consisting of two lanes in one direction and one lane in the other, alternating every few kilometres, and usually separated with a steel cable barrier. The second lane allows faster-moving t ...

)

Improvements

The section between the Petone and Normandale Overbridges was improved by the Dowse to Petone project, replacing three sets of traffic lights with a grade-separated roundabout and an overbridge. The grade-separation of the SH 58 intersection at Haywards was opened in 2017, converting the traffic light controlled intersection with a grade separated roundabout interchange. There are proposals to replace the Melling intersection with a grade-separated interchange also. Future plans also exist to grade separate the intersections at Fairway Drive (Kennedy Good Bridge) and at Silverstream (Fergusson Drive).

Interchanges

All interchanges are at-grade unless otherwise specified. At-grade intersections are controlled by traffic lights, with minor ones controlled by

Give Way In road transport, a yield or give way sign indicates that merging drivers must prepare to stop if necessary to let a driver on another approach proceed. A driver who stops or slows down to let another vehicle through has yielded the right of ...

and Stop signs. Several minor intersections were changed to prevent traffic turning right into or out of minor roads. The

Haywards Haywards is a small hillside suburb in the Hutt Valley near Wellington, New Zealand. It is notable for its large electrical substation, which is the main switching point for the Wellington region, and the home of the North Island converter stat ...

(

SH 58 The following highways are numbered 58: International * European route E58 Australia * Riverina Highway Canada * Alberta Highway 58 * Highway 58 (Ontario) * Saskatchewan Highway 58 Finland * Finnish national road 58 India * National Highway ...

), Dowse Drive,

Petone Petone (Māori: ''Pito-one''), a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. The Māori name means "end of the sand beach". Europeans first settled in Pe ...

, and

interchanges are grade-separated. ;Notes

References

{{New Zealand motorway list Roads in New Zealand Transport in Wellington Wellington City Lower Hutt Hutt Valley

Design

Improvements

Interchanges

See also

References