Length 26.3 km | Major cities Christchurch | |
North end: Johns Road/Main North Road at Belfast Southeast end: Gladstone Quay at Lyttelton | ||
State Highway 74 is a state highway in New Zealand servicing the eastern suburbs of Christchurch, in addition to connecting the city to its port town of Lyttelton. It is mostly two-lane, but is mostly composed of limited-access expressways, with part of the highway as the Christchurch-Lyttelton Motorway
Contents
Map of SH 74, Christchurch, New Zealand
Route
This is the current route of SH 74
The highway begins in Belfast, continuing as Main North Road from State Highway 1. proceeds in a southerly direction through the suburbs of Northwood and Redwood.
At Northcote, the highway turns left onto Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) Drive and begins its concurrency with the Christchurch Ring Road. As a two lane expressway, QEII Drive skirts through the northern suburbs of Christchurch, with major intersections at Innes Road and Marshland Road. After the Burwood Road traffic lights, the road changes name to Travis Road, loses expressway status, and runs in an easterly direction to the Anzac Drive/Frosts Road roundabout, where the highway turns right.
Now known as Anzac Drive, the road returns to expressway status and runs through the suburbs of Aranui and Bexley until reaching the Breezes Road/Bridge Street Roundabout. After the roundabout, the road changes name to Dyers Road. At Palinurus Road, the concurrency with the Ring Road ends, but Dyers Road keeps going in a southerly direction until the Ferry Road roundabout.
After the roundabout, the highway changes name to Tunnel Road and turns into a motorway, and passes through two interchanges before passing through the Lyttelton road tunnel. (For more information on this section go to Christchurch-Lyttelton Motorway)
In Lyttelton, the road changes name to Norwich Quay and acts as the main thoroughfare through the town and its associated port before terminating at the port gates as Gladstone Quay.
Route Changes
The route of SH 74 has been rearranged quite frequently for a State Highway, initially gazetted in 1964 upon the opening of the Lyttelton Road Tunnel, it only consisted of the motorway and the short section through Lyttelton.
When State Highway 1 through Christchurch was rerouted to bypass the city in the early 1990s, State Highways 73 and 74 were extended to cover much of the original route, with SH 74 initially continuing through at QEII Drive/Northcote Road to travel via Cranford and Sherborne Streets. In Christchurch CBD, the route turned left onto Bealey Avenue and then onto the parallel one-way roads Madras and Barbadoes Street. The road then turned left onto Moorhouse Avenue and then right onto Waltham Road before turning left again onto Brougham Street. The road then proceeded in a south-easterly direction until the Port Hills Road interchange with Tunnel Road. In 2004, the route was realigned to its current route, with much of the previous route either revoked or taken over by SH 73.
With the recent designation of the Christchurch northern corridor as a road of national significance, there are plans underway to create the expressway Northern Arterial Road, which will bypass the northern suburbs of Redwood and Belfast as well as turning both the QEII Drive and Travis Road sections of SH 74 into dual carriageways.
Major intersections
For Tunnel Road's major intersection, refer to Christchurch-Lyttelton Motorway
Spur Sections
State Highway 74A is a minor Christchurch arterial road connecting the southeastern industrial suburbs of Bromley and Woolston. It was gazetted as a new state highway in 2003 at the same time SH 74 was shifted to its current location. It is just over 2 kilometres long and consists of three roads - Garlands Road, Palinurus Road and Rutherford Street. It runs concurrent with the Christchurch Ring Road for its entire length.