The New Zealand Transport Agency has awarded a contract to a consortium of Fulton Hogan, HEB Construction, Jacobs and Opus International Consultants to build the NZD458M ($349m), 15.2km route on the Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway.

Work on the Huntly section, which will connect the Ohinewai section in the north with the Ngaruawahia section in the south at Gordonton Road, is set to start in September.

Archaeologist Warren Gumbley said projects such as the Waikato Expressway provide an opportunity for museums and the public to uncover the past buried in the ground.

"This project is allowing us to document this important part of the Waikato Maori economy."

"This was part of a massive horticultural complex, which stretches along the Waikato River, possibly the largest in Polynesia," Gumbley said.

"It was a major resource but it’s one we still don’t know much about. This project is allowing us to document this important part of the Waikato Maori economy."

The New Zealand Transport Agency project services manager Peter Simcock said the contract is great news for the overall expressway project.

"The Huntly section is an important link in the expressway project," Simcock said.

According to Simcock, the section is expected to cut travel time for motorists and reduce a further five minutes or more off the journey between Auckland and Hamilton.

"The Huntly to Hamilton stretch of State Highway 1 (SH1) is the highest risk road in the country based on the number of fatal and serious injury crashes per kilometre, according the most recent KiwiRAP report," Simcock added.

Including more than 100ha of forest and bush habitat enhancement, in addition to landscape and restoration planting of riparian, forest areas and wetland, the project will also make an ecological contribution to the area.