The New Zealand Transport Agency’s traffic cameras showed North Shore-bound traffic was crawling on the Upper Harbour motorway.
Auckland’s motorways are crawling as “March madness” begins in earnest.
“March madness” happens each year when schools, universities and workers are all back on deck and traffic on the region’s motorways hits its peak for the year.
A crash on the North Shore and two truck breakdowns on the southern motorway were contributing to delays as workers and university and school students tried to make their way into the city.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) tweeted about 7am on Wednesday that congestion had begun to build early.
A crash on Albany Highway had caused a massive traffic backlog on the Upper Harbour motorway, between northwest Auckland and the North Shore, the agency said.
On the busy southern motorway, a truck broke down in the northbound lanes just before the Greenlane offramp about 7am.
A second truck broke down 40 minutes later near the Princes St offramp, near Otahuhu.
Both trucks were clear of the lanes by 7.50am, but the agency was warning that drivers would face lengthy delays most of the way into the city.
Earlier, a person died after a van hit a tree in the rural south Auckland suburb of Pukekohe.
Paparata Rd was closed between Pinnacle Hill Rd and Totara Rd and people were being asked to avoid the area.
Auckland Transport had put on additional public transport services, including four double-decker buses, but was still warning people to allow extra time to get to work or university.
– Stuff