The past 8 days have been very interesting for me.  On Sunday 29th August I was walking on the new southern lanes of the Newmarket Viaduct that Transit New Zealand had opened for just a few hours.   Then after going to bed unfortunately late at 11:30pm or so, my wife and my sleep was interrupted at 2am on Monday, when she went into labour.  After one of those drives from hell with my wife having those painful contractions in the car on the swift 10minute drive into Auckland Hospital, we had great news that at 5:12am our beautiful baby girl was born – Emily, weighing 3.335kg and 54cm long (I will not use tall as she simply will not be standing for quite a while).

Newmarket Viaduct

Me on the Newmarket Viaduct - Public Open Day, Sunday 29 August 2010

Aucklanders reading this blog know how necessary this update is.  From Spaghetti junction going from 4 lanes into 3 was ridiculous, along with the falling debris issues from the aged structure with “concrete cancer”.  However for the non-Aucklanders reading this blog, the Newmarket Viaduct is one of the busiest stretches of motorway in New Zealand that services our nation’s economic powerhouse that is the Auckland CBD.  It was built in 1966 to link the Southern Motorway to the city, the Harbour Bridge and to Spaghetti Junction (as opposed to going up Great South Road and through Broadway in Newmarket Village itself).

Recently the bridge has come under criticism about the fact that debris flies off the viaduct to busy Newmarket below, seismic susceptibility (I wonder what would have happened had the Christchurch earthquake of 7.1 on the Richter scale hit Auckland), the bridge has been separating in sections to create big gaps and there was very little stopping space now the bridge contains the maximum amount of lanes.

Big Blue - the mighty crane on Auckland's Newmarket Viaduct

In 2009 Government statistics reveal that the Newmarket Viaduct carried 161,490 vehicles per day with the split being; southbound at 83,117 VPD and 78,373 VPD for northbound.  The image below comprises a series of 5 moving renders to demonstrate how the viaduct project is happening – we are in the start of Stage 3 currently (images in this blog are with acknowledgements to Benjamin Paul, AucklandMotorways.co.nz, NZTA/Transit NZ).

I will leave you now with some photos I took from Newmarket Viaduct.  I have to say that the views of our beautiful city Auckland, are simply amazing:

View towards Sky Tower from the Newmarket Viaduct

View to Broadway, Newmarket

View North to Rangitoto Island above Remuera Road

Great to see lots of Aucklanders getting out to Newmarket Viaduct despite temperamental weather

View North from the Newmarket Viaduct over South Remuera Houses

My baby girl

I am delighted to let you know that our family has expanded to four with the arrival of baby Emily. Her brother is currently a shade jealous of her, as she gets a lot of attention, especially from Mummy, but he’s doing so well with a lot to take on board just before he turns 2 years old.

Here’s little Emily doing what she does best:

Me and baby Emily - she is just under 2 hours old here in Auckland Hospital

The sleep deprivation is proving a bit of a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.  I am looking forward to her being able to sleep through the night like her brother did reasonably early on – fingers crossed.  No matter though,  we are very happy to have her and the tiredness is so worthwhile when her little hand wraps partially around my finger and she looks with her dark blue eyes into mine.

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