NZ InfraWatch
Open the live map →
East-West Link: Onehunga to Penrose
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi · Auckland
Upgrading access to the Onehunga-Penrose industrial area via SH1 and SH20, including a new Galway Link and Onehunga Harbour Rd widening: a scaled-back successor to the foreshore motorway cancelled in 2017. The current investment-case cost is redacted in the RoNS documents; broader estimates run to about $4b, and the figure shown is the indicative 2017 lower estimate. In July 2026 NZTA paused consenting, route protection and design and began withdrawing the 2017 Notice of Requirement, citing fiscal constraints, with no resumption date confirmed.
Data current as at 13 Jun 2026, when the pipeline was last checked against its source.
Key facts
- Region
- Auckland
- Sector
- Transport
- Status
- Planning
- Estimated value
- $1.8b
- Indicative completion
- 2038
- Funding status
- Part Funded
- Lead organisation
- NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi
- Election risk
- High
Election risk assessment
National Road of National Significance with an NZTA investment case, but route protection only and no construction funding. Labour cancelled the consented scheme in 2017; a government change would likely shelve it again.
Government priority alignment
HIGH: Road of National Significance, a Government Policy Statement / National Infrastructure Plan road priority.
Chronology
- 2017Original East-West Link (Onehunga foreshore motorway) consented, then paused
- 2023Reinstated by National as a Road of National Significance
- 2025NZTA investment case (Aug): staged Onehunga–Penrose scope, ~$3.7–4.1b, detailed planning
- 2026NZTA's July 2026 update moves East-West to the RoNS slow track: consenting, route protection and further design on the revised corridor are paused, the 2017 Notice of Requirement is being withdrawn, and pre-implementation and construction funding is uncertain with no resumption date confirmed