Wellsford, the northernmost town in Auckland, is a regular traffic chokepoint. File photo.
Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro

Traffic on State Highway 1 north of Auckland is now flowing smoothly after motorists were this afternoon again slowed to a crawl near Wellsford for a few hours.

Traffic was free-flowing this morning but queues have been building up on either side of Wellsford, a regular chokepoint 80 kilometres north of Auckland’s CBD, since about 1pm.

At its worst, between about 1 and 3pm, the line of traffic stretched about 4km south of Wellsford, a regular bottleneck on the route to Northland.

Motorists could also expect queues on the approach to Auckland’s Harbour Bridge and minor delays at Te Hana, just north of Wellsford.