Due to the diversity of the transport solutions required I have decided to create a new thread incompassing ALL transportation issues.


Gary Taylor: Wanted: one transport tsar

24.02.2004
COMMENT
"This timetable shows the times at which trains may be expected to operate. The operator endeavours to run all services on time, however weather, special events, traffic conditions, breakdowns and staff sickness may cause delays." - from Western Line Train Timetable 2004

Last year the Auckland region grew by 39,500 people. Many of them bought new cars. The regional economy continued to expand. As a result, traffic volumes increased by more than 4 per cent. Morning and evening peaks continued to merge on key routes and now encroach on most of the day. Delays cost businesses and individuals more than a billion dollars.

On the tracks, the trains broke down, ran late and were overloaded. Even the timetable contained Third World excuses for poor performance. The Auckland Regional Council bought some more second-hand trains and appointed a new train operator.

In the community, the debate raged between pro-road and pro-public transport advocates about the lack of progress. And finally the Government said: enough!

In December, the Prime Minister announced that our transport system would be overhauled. But the reality is that the Government's reforms don't go far enough and won't fix the problem.

What is the problem? Put simply, it is the involvement of too many organisations. At least 18, all with transport responsibilities. The Government says it will reduce those 18 entities to 17: Infrastructure Auckland is to be folded into the ARC.

There is merit in strengthening the ARC. Its new subsidiary will be called Auckland Regional Holdings. It will be the regional bank. It will need to achieve at least 11 per cent compound annual return on the $1 billion investments to match Infrastructure Auckland's performance.

Another entity will be created, also under the ARC umbrella, called the Auckland Regional Transport Authority. It will plan, finance and implement transport in Auckland, excluding state highways.

But the bottom line is that folding Infrastructure Auckland into the ARC and simply relocating the present ARC functions into a new subsidiary is not going far enough. In fact, if Auckland Regional Holdings and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority both have their own boards as proposed, the reforms will actually increase the number of players from 18 to 19!

We should look for inspiration at Perth, a city the size of Auckland. It has a great motorway network that flows freely. It also has a new, world-class commuter train network. The system is attracting so much patronage that Perth has ordered 98 more new trains.

We should also look at Brisbane, Toronto and Vancouver, cities that have really effective, fully integrated transport networks.

What distinguishes these examples is that they all have an overall transport authority with very few additional bodies. And Auckland has massive fragmentation, multiple entities, each with governing bodies and supporting bureaucracies keen to protect their own turf. Why on earth do we do this to ourselves?

With all these players, progress is slow and often involves poor, overly pragmatic and short-term choices. We have been proposing a rail upgrade since 1988 and motorway enhancements longer than that.

In spite of all the talk, the level of debate in the region is appalling. We have a pro-road lobby that wants just roads and we have a pro-public transport lobby that wants just trains.

Fundamental to any reforms must be the acceptance that Auckland needs both a first-rate, fully completed motorway system and a world-class train, ferry and bus network.

It is salutary to consider this: when the planned motorways are complete, they will add about 15 per cent capacity to the network. But by then traffic volumes will have increased at least 30 per cent at present rates of growth. So we will have more cars on the road and even greater congestion.

That is why we need a world-class train, ferry and busway network as well. The Rail Business Plan, paid for largely by Infrastructure Auckland, proposes new, electrified trains running at five-minute intervals and driving patronage up from the paltry 2 million passengers at present to 25 million by 2016.

That plan needs rapid implementation. With proper management, we could have the network fully electrified and new electric trains within 24 months. The proposed Auckland Regional Transport Authority should be told to deliver that outcome and given all the tools it needs.

The recent work by regional and Government officials demonstrated that we can afford both motorways and a comprehensive public transport network. The funds are largely available. Yes, there is a funding gap and closing that will involve some congestion pricing - but that was always on the cards. We simply have to pay more toget Auckland moving and thosewho argue to the contrary are deluding themselves.

The Government should create a fully empowered Auckland Regional Transport Authority. It can then plan, finance and implement transport in a fully integrated way, moving people and goods along transport corridors, whether they be rail tracks, harbours, busways or roads.

The key is devolving the relevant central Government functions to the region. This makes sense when 70 per cent of total regional transport spending is by central Government.

Transit New Zealand - the central Government road builder - should be brought into the new Transport Authority. Transfund - the central Government transport funder - could then bulk fund the region, allowing priority setting between roads and public transport to be done here rather than in Wellington.

Trackco, central Government's new rail network owner, should contract the management of its Auckland network to the region. From what we have seen of the likely directors of Trackco (the present directors of NZ Railways Corporation), there is a clear focus on national priorities, which will favour freight operations.

Commuter rail is poorly understood. Regional control of the corridor is essential if we are to get to 25 million passengers a year.

All the other public agencies with major transport responsibilities in the region should also be included in the new Transport Authority. It should have as many tools as possible to address Auckland's transport woes.

The Government already has a separate review of its own transport activities under way. The brief for this could easily be extended to incorporate a careful look at these devolution scenarios. A fully fledged Regional Transport Authority with all the relevant functions could deliver the decongestion benefits and public transport upgrade Auckland needs. The present plan will not do that. It is merely a small step in the right direction.

Finally, it is vital that while any reforms are implemented over the next 12 months, we continue to make robust progress in addressing the transport crisis. The changes cannot be used as another excuse for continuing inaction. We simply cannot afford more delay.

* Gary Taylor is a director of Infrastructure Auckland. The views he expresses are his own.

Im glad the govt is giving Auckland that 1.5 billion it pledged to help with new road constructions

I had to go over to Kyper Pass Road today. I left at 4:50pm, and got from my house in birkenhead across the bridge in about 5 minutes. The Victoria park overpass lane was backed up to the bridge so I thought it would be quicker to go through the city up symonds street then left into kyper pass.

In total it took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to get there. This is a trip that on a normal day should take about 15-20 minutes. Traffic was bumper to bumper all the way. The traffic lights in town would turn green for less than 3 seconds, and leave me waiting for several minutes in between each time. That didn't matter though cos traffic wasn't moving on the other side.

As I got to the symonds street overpass, I looked out across a plethora of several layers of ramps twisting in all directions at spaghetti junction, and saw hundreds of cars sitting completely still packed up right against each other. Absolutely no movement.

I left to go back to the shore after reaching my destination, and got back home in 20 minutes, going a rather odd way past Mt Eden prison, back onto the motorway heading south, then turning back north at Gillies Ave, and through spaghetti junction.

Been there man,thats the same as trying to use Gt Sth Rd instead of the Southern Motorway,the only difference is that on Gt sth Road you can stop somewhere to grab a bite to eat if you want to,the traffic is just as heavy on the older/alternate routes.

Proposed urban design on Aucklands motorways.

Maori style art on a retaining wall CMJ.
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/Curved-wall.jpg

K-Rd overpass redesign central city
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/K-Rd-Bridge-2.jpg

Those are great ideas,I like them.
Where did you find those?
:)

Originally posted by NZer
Those are great ideas,I like them.
Where did you find those?
:)

I like them too, thus the post.

Heres the url. Its part of the general CMJ site.

http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/html/cmj/cmjUrban.htm

Auckland's answer to the ''Big Dig''.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pdf/9easterncorridor.GIF

The $4b answer to traffic jams

10.03.2004
By MATHEW DEARNALEY, transport reporter
Aucklanders have been offered a partial solution to their transport woes - but it could cost almost $4 billion.

Transport consultants yesterday nominated a preferred route for most of a 27km eastern loop expressway for cars, trucks and buses from Manukau to central Auckland.

As many as 1200 homes could be bulldozed or affected to some degree.

The cost of the project, on which Auckland City Mayor John Banks has staked his political career, has ballooned from $460 million in a 2002 study to between $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion, depending on which entrance it makes to the central city.

A "worst case" price-tag for what Mr Banks and Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis want to be a public-private investment partnership drawing heavily on road tolls could be as much as $3.9 billion.

There was no indication yesterday how much tolls could be.

The variations depend on whether the expressway crosses Hobson Bay to meet Tamaki Drive - which would be substantially widened by land reclamation to take eight lanes of traffic - or goes under Parnell through a 3.5km tunnel.

Mr Banks prefers the tunnel option as less environmentally disruptive, although it would add $400 million to $600 million to the cost.

The expressway would also make connections to the waterfront and the Northwestern and Northern Motorways more challenging, particularly with a 90-degree turn in a spiral junction called a gyratory.

Planners claim about 80 per cent of heavy port traffic would choose the eastern route for a faster getaway, although only a fifth of general vehicles would be siphoned off the Southern Motorway.

They promise big cuts in travelling times, but the route across Hobson Bay would give drivers their only lawful chance to hit 100km/h, as limits along other sections would generally be 80km/h, dropping to 60km/h around Pakuranga.

The number of lanes would also vary, but a bus lane is recommended in each direction and there would be at least two general vehicle lanes.

A steering committee will receive another report on funding possibilities before deciding between the options in the next two months.

The consultants ruled out routes along Kepa Rd in Orakei and close to Mt Wellington Quarry - where high-density housing is planned - as too socially and environmentally problematic.

Traffic would go straight up the environmentally sensitive Purewa Creek instead, although on an elevated expressway which the consultants say would not cut into the cemetery where former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon is buried.

A bridge across the Tamaki River to Farm Cove near Pakuranga has also been discounted, in deference to routes to the north, south and west of the Panmure Basin.

Although about 1200 homes would be bulldozed or otherwise affected, Mr Banks said many other residents could now feel "a lot more relaxed".

But Stop the Eastern Motorway (Stem) lobby group said it was ludicrous to expect to reduce congestion by giving commuters a motorway competing along the same corridor as buses and trains.

The corridor would follow train tracks from Auckland to Panmure.

Stem spokesman Richard Lewis said this would not spare Auckland the degradation of vehicle congestion and a busway next to a railway was "economic and transport-planning madness."

Auckland City councillor Bruce Hucker, head of the City Vision team, said Mr Banks' prescription for congestion was "like offering relief from obesity by telling you to loosen your belt".

Dr Hucker believed the expressway would swallow money desperately needed for other projects which "go somewhere", such as the $1 billion completion of the SH20 link to the Northwestern Motorway.

But Northern Employers and Manufacturers' Association chief Alasdair Thompson said the route was an excellent choice at a price which was "not much" compared with the $1 billion a year that congestion cost Aucklanders.

The bridge on the north of the Panmure Basin would be duplicated for one bus and one general vehicle lane in each direction, and another bridge would be added on the southern side for eight lanes of expressway traffic and "enhanced walking and cycling facilities".

Traffic lanes would be sunk into trenches through the Glen Innes town centre, winning praise from the Business and Economic Research consultancy, which says the project would spur economic and community growth.

Director Kel Sanderson said the sunken corridor would encourage above-ground pedestrian, cycling and vehicle links between developments such as Auckland University's proposed "Innovation Park" and the community.

He predicted the population of Glen Innes and Panmure would double to about 60,000 by 2030, largely triggered by greater accessibility through the corridor. Gross domestic product could rise $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year.

From Pakuranga, the corridor would go east down a widened Ti Rakau Drive before turning south along Te Irirangi Drive, where two bus lanes would be added to the existing four general traffic lanes.

Although Mr Banks wants Auckland's motorway network completed within 10 years, the eastern project could soak up more than half the $6.62 billion the Government has promised the region in that time for transport.

But he said the Government must put more money into the pot because of the country's dependence on Auckland to "get moving".

The Eastern Transport Corridor

Length: 27km, from Manukau to central Auckland.

What is it: Varies from two to three vehicle lanes in each direction, and a dedicated buslane along the entire route, joining double or triple rail tracks from Panmure to Auckland.

Financial cost: $2.8 billion to $3.2b with Parnell tunnel option but could rise to $3.9b in the "worst case".

Environmental and social cost: About 1200 homes demolished or otherwise affected, visual and noise pollution including through the Purewa wetland, although tunnel option would avoid the latter.

How it compares

Waikato Expressway: A $500 million highway between Cambridge and Mercer

Transmission Gully, near Wellington: At least $245 million on an alternative route into the capital

Orewa to Puhoi motorway: Known as Alpurt, and budgeted at $160 million

Project Aqua: Meridian Energy's $1.3 billion energy scheme beside the Waitaki River.

11.03.2004
By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Auckland City Mayor John Banks is scoffing at claims ratepayers will be overburdened by a grandiose eastern expressway project, saying the Government will be obliged to dig deep.

But he is reluctant to put figures on possible toll charges to repay potential private investment partners, despite being quoted initially as suggesting $5 and then pruning this to $2.50.

Mr Banks said yesterday that he did not envisage either his or Manukau City's ratepayers becoming "significant contributors" to a project which consultants say could cost almost $4 billion.

That was because he believed the project was of sufficient national interest for the Government to join private investors in funding the lion's share, despite its existing commitment of $6.62 billion to Auckland transport in the next 10 years.

He said there was already a $3.4 billion shortfall for current proposals, without counting the eastern corridor, but he hoped to persuade the Government to allow tolls to be extended to existing roads and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Mr Banks was responding to a claim by rival mayoral candidate Christine Fletcher that Auckland ratepayers risked paying a disproportionate share of costs for the expressway, which will include up to six general traffic lanes and two bus lanes.

Her claim was based on a report by project director Grant Kirby that the cost would be split between the Auckland and Manukau city areas on a ratio of about 80:20.

Auckland residents would shoulder the heaviest financial burden for a project from which commercial transport operators and commuters from Howick and Pakuranga would gain the greatest benefits, said Mrs Fletcher.

Other civic leaders are also nervous about the eastern corridor.

Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey said he was worried the eastern corridor would siphon off money needed for double rail tracks to his city, and for completing the western motorway link.

Mr Banks said he was waiting for the Deloitte consultancy to report next week on funding options before being able to talk about toll charges for the proposed expressway.

Asked about a consultants' report in 2002 which estimated that tolls would raise less than $100 million of the projected cost, Mr Banks said there were plenty of interested investors.

Meanwhile, Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis faces political heat from a challenger for the Manukau mayoralty, Len Brown, who accused him yesterday of trying to pre-empt strategic decisions about his city's transport future.

Mr Brown said congestion along Ti Rakau Drive was being exaggerated as a major reason for Manukau's participation in the corridor project, because of a $40 million proposed link to the Southern Motorway from a new industrial estate in East Tamaki.

But the most controversial section of the project remains the Auckland end, where consultants have left it to the project steering group to choose between tunnels under Parnell and an expressway across Hobson Bay.

Motorway development map 1965

http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/images/cmi/dlcmap.gif

Central Motorway Junction UC 1973

http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/images/1973F.jpg

Auckland Harbour Bridge on completion 1959

http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/images/1959B.jpg

Addition of ''clip-on'' lanes 1966 (doubling width from 4 to 8 lanes only 7 years after the original bridge was opened)

http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/images/1966B.jpg

Disabled man left to crawl on to crowded train
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pics/r22dempsey.JPG
22.03.2004
By NATASHA HARRIS AND MATHEW DEARNALEY
A muscular dystrophy sufferer had to crawl on to an Auckland commuter train on his hands and knees after being told the train was running too late for an access ramp to be put down.

Tim Dempsey, 33, says he dropped to his knees to clamber on to a crowded carriage at Sturges Rd station in Henderson. Although he does not yet use a wheelchair, his weakening muscles mean he needs a walking stick, and he can barely walk up stairs.

But Mr Dempsey said the Tranz Metro train manager told him he could not use the ramp because the train was running late, by five minutes, and the ramp was for people in wheelchairs.

He said the manager told him: "The ramp is for people in wheelchairs - that's why it's called a wheelchair ramp."

"I was stunned," said Mr Dempsey, who is the Muscular Dystrophy Association's national fundraising manager.

"I had used it on my only other train journey in Auckland two months earlier when the train was running 30 minutes late.

"I was thinking, I'm going to have to get on the train and this was the only option I had, so I crawled on without any help.

"This is crazy. This is not some type of Third World country - this is Auckland, 2004."

A colleague from his work, physiotherapist Ruth McKenzie, was with him at the time and says she was appalled at his treatment.

"I was angry that Tim had to crawl on the train and in front of a carriage full of people. I was disgusted that there was such ignorance among public service people.

"They should know that access is access and if they have a ramp, they should use it."

Mr Dempsey said that when the train arrived at Britomart Station, the ramp was put down in about 30 seconds and he walked off, followed by a woman with a baby in a pushchair.

Two train staff who had seen the earlier incident apologised to him.

The incident prompted Ms McKenzie to send a letter of complaint to Tranz Metro and to the Auckland Regional Council and to offer them help to train staff to deal with people with disabilities.

Mr Dempsey said: "The important thing for me is, let's make sure this doesn't happen again and let's make sure they educate their staff about disabled access.

"Access is not always physical in the sense of a ramp; often it's people's attitudes. That train wasn't inaccessible, the train manager's attitude made it inaccessible."

Tranz Metro general manager Paul Ashton said an investigation into the incident had begun.

"If this is the way he was treated, it is totally unacceptable and unsatisfactory and we are taking immediate steps to find out what occurred and ensure we don't have a repeat."

Mr Ashton said the company had trained staff in dealing with customers with disabilities, but admitted that taking on a high number of recruits in the past 18 months had probably left a gap in "knowledge and competency to deal with this particular group of consumers".

C.K. Stead: Auckland's mayors singing from the wrong songsheet

22.03.2004
COMMENT
Like the three tenors, Mayors John Banks and Sir Barry Curtis sing the same song, though it sounds like something written by a tuneless PR man with little concern that words should mean anything or that facts should be verifiable.

In answer to Tim Hazledine's questioning of the $4 billion cost of the proposed eastern highway, the mayors claim "the benefits to Auckland's economy over time are huge", and will justify the expenditure.

These "benefits", as they describe them, however, are so vague and generalised as to be meaningless: "an investment for securing sustainable growth"; "the benefits, including social multipliers, could reach $46 billion"; "urban transformation and economic development" - these are phrases meant to persuade, but what do they mean in real terms?

The idea that a highway dressed up as a "transport corridor" will magically send New Zealand up the OECD ladder, and that Auckland, therefore, has a responsibility to build this dinosaur for the good of the nation - these are catch-cries, without economic or intellectual substance and they are not to be taken seriously.

There are many ways of measuring costs. The eastern highway is a proposal that would cost us not only in dollars but in damage. Auckland is a beautiful city, rating high on international surveys.

That it attracts tourists is important but more important is that those of us who live in it love it and want to preserve its attractions for our children and grandchildren.

Short of a huge aerial bombardment, a motorway is the most destructive modern weapon against an urban environment, blocking access on either side, dividing communities, destroying housing, waterways, parklands and areas of natural beauty, creating air and (even worse) noise pollution, and in the long term making worse the traffic problem it is supposed to solve.

This latter point cannot be repeated too often, since our civic leaders seem unable to learn the lessons even of very recent history. I am old enough to remember when Grafton Gully was a piece of charming bushland, with old graves and a stream running down towards the harbour.

When it was proposed as the route for a motorway, we were assured that only a thin strip would be taken and that, otherwise, its natural beauty would be preserved. It is now a maze of concrete.

That mistake can't be undone, but there is no need to repeat it along the waterfront, and through Hobson Bay, the Orakei Basin, and Meadowbank.

Never unwilling to make themselves ridiculous, Mayors Banks and Curtis predict land-value rises. Are we to expect real-estate advertisements reading "Come and live by the motorway"? What is most likely is the development of a wide ribbon of low-grade living and industrial degradation, a no-go zone.

Those of us who prefer to use the car (and I include myself) must be disciplined, or at least learn the facts of urban life, one of which is that if you live in a city of a million or more and insist on using your car during rush hours, you must be prepared to spend some time going nowhere.

If billions of dollars are wasted in an attempt to defeat or disprove this basic fact of modern living, the relief will be short-lived, the cost and the damage enormous, and in a very short time the problem will have re-created itself.

There are no exceptions to this rule but there is a way out - public transport, and that is where, if only we had talented and visionary public leaders, all our efforts would now be concentrated.

Mr Banks favours making motorway and harbour bridge-users pay. That is reasonable, but only if the money gathered goes into public transport. If driving your car is a pleasure at public expense, it is a pleasure that should be taxed.

To make bridge-users pay for the eastern highway would be wrong. To make them pay for a cheaper ferry service, on the other hand, would be fair and reasonable.

Similarly, if cars are taxed for using existing motorways, the money gathered should subsidise public transport. Systems of this kind are working in European cities, including London.

"We have been around Auckland's incomplete roading network problems for at least 25 years," the mayors tell us. If that is so, they must bear some of the responsibility for the failure to get on with the kind of public transport system that Mayor Robinson was calling for in the 1960s.

Now they are rushing to solve the problem by adding a highway that runs parallel to the existing motorway and eventually converges with it.

One of Auckland's problems has been a centralised bureaucracy in Wellington, run largely by civil servants who saw to the capital's needs before they gave any thought to New Zealand's largest city.

It was noticeable a few years ago when Auckland had its power crisis that we had four main cables into the city while Wellington had 10. Similarly, the old NZ Railways made sure that Wellington had a viable commuter rail service while Auckland's remained relatively undeveloped.

These are facts of our city's past that have to be recognised and met. We are a long way behind in public transport, and should have maximum help from the Government in correcting the deficit.

The west coast of North America offers lessons from which we should learn. To the north is Vancouver, a city of comparable size to Auckland, with the ocean to the west and the mountains rising behind.

It has recognised that motorways solve nothing and that there are values and qualities to be preserved for the future. Vancouver has spent money on public transport, including its excellent skytrain services, and is reaping the benefits.

To the south is Los Angeles which preserves a few havens of comfort and beauty for the rich (Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air) and is otherwise a network of clogged motorways, with their attendant smog, low-grade commerce, dingy housing and industrial wastelands.

These are the futures Auckland must choose between. Our two mayors are pointing us in the wrong direction.

Hi Guys, had to post on here after hearing that Connex is going to run the trains in Auckland. This French company is notorious in the UK for mismanagement and ripping off customers. BBC link,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3073519.stm

Well, they run the transport in Melbourne, and on the news tonight they said Connex there were punctual 95% of the time.

Connex given $144m deal to revive Auckland's rail system

23.03.2004
By MATHEW DEARNALEY
French company Connex has been contracted to nurse Auckland's rail system back to life, promising high reliability despite mixed overseas reviews.

The company, which yesterday signed a $144 million deal with the Auckland Regional Council to run trains for at least four years from July, has an excellent track record in Australia but ran into terminal trouble in Britain.

Australian chairman Bob Annells said it should be judged on overall performance in more than 20 countries, and described its loss of English franchises after complaints of crowded trains and cancellations as an anomaly caused by inadequate public funding.

He cited achievements in Melbourne, where Connex carried more than 50 million passengers annually and would next month extend its operation across the whole of that city, carrying 125 million passengers.

Although this dwarfs Auckland, where annual rail trips are forecast to rise to 3.25 million by June compared with 2.5 million last year, Mr Annells said the contract with the regional council was nevertheless important for Connex.

"It represents our first opportunity in New Zealand, and for that we've waited quite some time."

Council transport committee chairwoman Catherine Harland said the contract was structured to deliver more reliable and frequent services, and greater patronage.

The contract, which gives Connex a subsidy of $36 million for each of the four years with rights of renewal for three more, would include monitoring and performance-reporting, backed by possible sanctions.

She said it would take time to build frequency as the western rail line was progressively doubled-tracked and new rolling stock introduced, starting next month with the first of 10 refurbished trains.

Connex has been set an initial target of ensuring 85 per cent of trains run on time or no more than five minutes late, and will be encouraged to raise this to 95 per cent. This compares with 80 per cent now on the southern line, and 65 per cent on the single-track western.

Sounds promising to say the least, but i'm pretty sure that things regarding Trains, etc, will be very good in about 5-6 years time:)

City backs away from eastern highway

25.03.2004
By BERNARD ORSMAN
Auckland City Council says it cannot risk any more ratepayer money on the $3 billion-$4 billion eastern highway project.

Planning director Dr Jill McPherson told the Herald that going to the next stage of notifying the project would make the council liable for property purchases of between $760 million and $970 million.

"We just haven't got that sort of money. If it is ever constructed it will have to be a regional or national project," Dr McPherson said.

The decision is potentially a major blow for the project and Auckland City Mayor John Banks, who has staked his mayoralty on turning the eastern corridor into a motorway by 2010. It comes two weeks after the preferred route was narrowed down to two options.

Mr Banks was yesterday returning from a British Government 10-day study tour and could not be reached for comment.

The decision to end formal involvement in the project follows advice by consultants and lawyers about the cost of continuing to the next stage of notifying the project and seeking resource consents.

An opinion from the council's lawyers, Simpson Grierson, said once the proposal was notified, the notifying body or bodies would be liable for potential property purchases up to $1.2 billion.

Auckland and Manukau councils and the national road building agency, Transit, are committed to the project up to choosing a preferred route.

Dr McPherson said the cost of property purchases within the Auckland City boundaries of the 27km highway was between $760 million and $970 million. The council, which is also looking at making a $400 million bid for waterfront land and other projects, had no money put aside for property purchases, she said. The other property costs are in Manukau.

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis did not return calls, but environmental management director Leigh Auton said there was a "strong possibility" the council would notify the part of the project within its boundaries.

The council had money set aside in its long-term financial plan to buy properties affected by the highway, he said.

Funding options will be outlined to the councils and Transit next month in a report being prepared by the consulting firm Deloittes. Mr Banks and Sir Barry want a public-private investment partnership drawing heavily on road tolls and congestion charging.

Transit chairman David Stubbs said he would be surprised if a project of this scale would proceed to the designation and resource consent stage without major political input.

"Legally, Transit might have some discretion, but this is on such a scale that there would have to be a much clearer mandate than there is at the moment for Transit's involvement to increase."

The mandate would have to come from the councils and central government, including the Minister of Transport, said Mr Stubbs.

Stop the Eastern Motorway (Stem) lobby group spokesman Richard Lewis said Mr Banks would lose all credibility if the council walked away from the project now.

"Mr Banks has spent millions of dollars putting this grandiose plan together and now he wants to give a hospital pass for somebody else to carry it to the next step," he said.

Auckland City has committed $2.9 million to the latest study to find a preferred route. Manukau's share is $2.3 million.

Dr Bruce Hucker, leader of the City Vision team at Auckland City, said the decision meant Mr Banks could no longer deliver his promise to build the eastern highway.

"This will defer the project significantly because I have no evidence of any signs of strong support coming from the Government."

Dr Hucker said delays notifying the preferred route would leave 1200 affected property owners in the position of seeing their house prices fall and unable to seek compensation.

Herald Feature: Getting Auckland moving

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pics/ACFVJAcIaGG4.JPG

Report gives harbour bridge a reprieve

25.03.2004
By MATHEW DEARNALEY transport reporter
Engineers expect the Auckland Harbour Bridge to last longer than a gloomy prediction of six months ago, but this has not stopped a push for a new harbour crossing.

The regional land transport committee has decided to ask Transit New Zealand to head a full investigation into a new crossing, and to establish a project team including regional council and Auckland and North Shore city representatives.

Transit said in October that the existing bridge's two clip-on extensions might have to be replaced in less than 20 years.

But a Transit-commissioned peer review, which went this week to the transport committee, said the extensions would probably last at least until 2050.

The highway agency's Auckland manager, Wayne McDonald, said yesterday that the review had refined the prognosis for the clip-ons to about the mid-point of an earlier prediction of "greater than 20 years to significantly less than 100".

Consultants to the Auckland Regional Council have widened options for a new crossing, suggesting it would be possible to build a duplicate structure on the eastern side of the existing bridge.

The council called for its own review of the initial Transit "constructability" study, which favours a second bridge about 500m to the west of the existing bridge or an underwater tunnel to its east.

This followed a threat of legal action from about 1000 Northcote Point residents who signed a petition against having their community split by a cut and cover tunnel connecting a western bridge to the Northern Motorway.

The reviewing consultants concluded that a duplicate bridge next to the existing bridge, but on the opposite side to Northcote Pt, merited further consideration.

They also warned that the tunnel option might not be feasible once the western waterfront reclamation between the bridge and Viaduct Harbour was developed, and recommended swift action in making a full scheme assessment before then.

Residents' spokeswoman Gaye Greenwood was guarded about giving too much weight to the new bridge suggestion, wondering whether it would simply help Transit defend itself from legal action for failing otherwise to consider alternative locations.

She said her group wanted to be consulted in drawing up terms of reference for the proposed project team.

The transport committee also voted to ask Transfund to support the investigation as one of five high-priority study projects, among which it included the $3.5 billion to $4 billion eastern highway proposal.

Its about time they looked into a second harbour crossing, a tunnel i think wiuld be the best idea, proably from Tamaki drive area to nth shr.

Originally posted by flyin_higher
Its about time they looked into a second harbour crossing, a tunnel i think wiuld be the best idea, proably from Tamaki drive area to nth shr.

They are looking into it. Transit has an extensive pdf on the investigation and options.

Although Transit dosent consider a route from the Nth Shore to Tamaki Drive in their plan, this has been put forward already by John Banks as an extention on his Eastern Highway project. Indeed a crossing to Tamaki Drv would require the Eastern Highway to be built and in larger proportions (due to an even higher traffic volume). The more I read about it, the less enthusiastic I become about the Eastern Highway. The Eastern Highway isnt even included in Aucklands Transport Stratagy so its a case of going it alone by the 2 mayors. If John Banks really wants to get this thing rolling I think he should cut his losses and re-evaluate the plan. I would see a more modest 4 laning of the existing roads along the corridor from Tamaki Drv to Mt Wellington. This would cater more effectively to the existing situation with a modest growth projection.

I would go for improving the Eastern link from Mt Wellington to Pakauranga from 4 to 6 lanes with an overpass at the traffic lights at the Mt Wlgtn industrial area and a bypass around the Pakauranga Mall to Pakauranga Rd and widening of Te Rakau Drv to 6 lanes.
Widen the Southern Mwy from Mt Wellington to New Market from 6 to 10 or 12 lanes and build a deviation along the railway from New market past Parnell to Mechanics bay where it would then dive underground into a tunnel across the harbour to Northcote. Starting the tunnel here would mean a heavyrail tunnel from Britomart could be included in the package.
What would it cost? Just guessing:
1. Harbour tunnels. 6 lanes traffic and 2 railtracks $4/4.5 billion.
2. Deviation from Sthern Mwy, New market to Mechanics bay. 6 lanes on viaduct above railway and tunnel under parnell Rd and parallel alighnment with railway past Parnel $4-500 million.
3. Doubling capacity on the Sthern Mwy with rebuilt interchanges, elevated 6 lane mwy above the existing mwy or widening the corridor for 12 lanes with elevated rail line above the roadway with elevated stations. $1 billion
4. The above stated improvements on Eastern suburbs access to the southern mwy. $200 million.
5. Widening existing roads from and including Tamaki Drive to Panmure and Mt Wellington $100 million

Total (guess): $5.7/6.3billion

Transits existing harbour crossing options without rail tunnel. $3 billion. Note that Transits plan doesnt include a major capacity increase on the Southern mwy to accomodate the extra 6 lanes across the harbour.
Eastern Highway $4 billion

Total: 7 billion

The advantage in my eyes is that with such a proposal from the ACC that Transit maybe more enclined to assist as it incorporates their own ambitions and incorporates a future crucial PT corridor (CBD-Nth Shore).

Have any of you thought about this? or have any ideas?

Would this be an option for the Southern Motorway between Ellerslie/Panmure and Newmarket? 5 lanes per direction with the railway elevated.
This is an example in Houston.
http://www.northeastsyty.com/uploader/files/i10_hov_looking_e_A_20-july-2001_hres.jpg

This is the corridor in question. Currently 3-3 with the railway running next to the motorway over a distance of 5 km.

http://www.davidwallphoto.com/images/%7BE953C28C%2D1D85%2D44AA%2D9BF6%2D88F46F61B4E4%7D%2EJPG

I doubt it,not with a new 2-2 lane M'way along Tamaki Dr and down to Howick.It'll be just as clogged as the Southern within no time too..........

I doubt it,not with a new 2-2 lane M'way along Tamaki Dr and down to Howick.It'll be just as clogged as the Southern within no time too..........

The problem with the eastern hwy is that it doesnt go anywhere. It terminates at Quay St East. Apart from diverting traffic from the roads winding through Kohimarama there wont be much use for the road. The Sthern mwy may experience a slight drop for a short period, but most eastern traffic to the CBD and beyond will continue to use the sthern mwy. I believe the sthern mwy will become an issue whether or not the eastern hwy is built. Just look at the map in a previous post and you will see that even the eastern hwy project incorporates a large interchange at Mt Wellington with the Sthern mwy.

$1.80 toll tipped for Puhoi road

17.05.2004
By WAYNE THOMPSON
A toll of $1.80 is proposed for the Northern Motorway extension from Orewa to Puhoi.

The charge for a one-way trip would allow construction of the $260 million extension to start as early as December, Transit New Zealand acting chief executive Rick van Barneveld told a public meeting in Orewa on Saturday.

The 7.5km stretch past the notorious traffic bottleneck of Orewa could be in use in four years, he said. This was far sooner than a road without the security of income from a toll.

Mr van Barneveld said the toll was set at $1.80 because it would contribute to construction financing costs without turning people off using the superior new road.

Public views would be welcomed.

Some of the 100 people at the meeting expressed anger that people could travel from Meremere to Orewa without having to pay, yet this final section was singled out for a toll.

Mr van Barneveld said user-pays proposals such as tolling were attached to other future projects.

Public approval through consultation is necessary for parliamentary permission to build a toll road

--

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pics/13barrycurtis.JPG

Highway advocates eye tolls Auckland-wide

13.05.2004
By BERNARD ORSMAN
The cost of the eastern highway has been cut by $1 billion, but it will still take tolls on motorways, the Harbour Bridge and arterial roads across Auckland to build it.

Auckland City Mayor John Banks and Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis yesterday released plans to scale back the eastern highway by abandoning an expensive tunnel under Parnell, doing away with bus lanes from Panmure to the city and placing greater emphasis on rail.

But the project still comes with a pricetag of $2.5 billion and a warning from Sir Barry that Auckland will need to "get into the real world" and pay tolls to complete the eastern highway and other transport projects.

Sir Barry said he envisaged two toll cordons round Auckland - an inner cordon and an outer cordon - on all motorway and arterial routes to pay for a $6 billion funding shortfall to complete the city's roading and public transport network.

"The best way to do that is to try to replicate what has happened in London and overseas.

"It means that every time a commuter penetrates the cordon they pay a charge.

"It has the effect of encouraging people to get out of their cars and into public passenger transport," Sir Barry said.

The mayors have put a case to the Government for city-wide tolls. At present, tolls are allowed only if there is a free alternative.

Following strong lobbying from community groups, the eastern corridor political steering group has recommended abandoning the 3.5km Parnell tunnel option in favour of crossing Hobson Bay for the final leg of highway into the city.

Mr Banks, who had favoured the tunnel option, said it had become increasingly obvious that it was too expensive, too tough, too disruptive and technically too difficult.

The final decision to opt for the Hobson Bay crossing will be made by Auckland City's transport committee on June 30.

Abandoning the tunnel option will save about $600 million and dropping two lanes for buses from Panmure to the city is expected to save another $400 million.

The mayors, with urging from steering group chairman Greg McKeown, are placing greater emphasis on improved rail along the corridor, including new electrified trains and the future possibility of an inner-city loop from Britomart by tunnel up Queen St connecting with the western line at Mt Eden.

The mayors are also talking of making a start in 2006 on the highway and public transport in the Glen Innes, Panmure and Pakuranga areas, where there are serious congestion problems and economic gains to be made.

But before work can start, the councils must decide how they are going to legally protect land along the 27km route for transport purposes, pay for $1 billion of property costs, gain resource consents and fund the construction work.

Sir Barry said Manukau had $150 million set aside to buy property.

Auckland City, with property costs of about $850 million, has nothing set aside.

Mr Banks said it had been proved that the eastern corridor was of national significance and a government, maybe not the Labour Government, would come to the party.

"We have made a lot of progress and in three years' time the eastern corridor will be being built, it will be funded, the land acquisition will all be completed and it will be on its way to network completion," he said.

[Transport Minister Pete Hodgson said last week that the Government had pledged an extra $1.6 billion to Auckland transport projects over the next year, but this did not include funding for the eastern highway project.

Transit, which has been involved with Auckland and Manukau cities investigating a route, has not guaranteed future support for the highway now that hundreds of millions of dollars are needed to move the project to the next stage of protecting the corridor and seeking resource consents.

Road works

Where to now for the eastern highway?

* Parnell Rd tunnel abandoned, saving $600m.

* Bus lanes from Panmure to city abandoned, saving $400m.

* Auckland-wide tolls to pay for highway and other projects.

* Greater emphasis on rail, including new electric trains.

* Work to start in 2006 in Glen Innes, Pakuranga, Panmure

It's a pity they are going to be so cheap with the connection to S.H 16 and S.H 1 from the new eastern highway.They have just done a lot of modifying down there(Grafton Gully)I guess the intersections in the East of Auckland CBD will be such a nightmare that they will need rectifying within 5-10 years after completion of the Eastern Highway.

Fuck paying $1.80 for the Puhoi Extension!!!!

I'll just keep using the old Rd (S.H 1A and S.H 17) if they try to put that on me,it was meant to be built last year or even earlier.

John Banks can stick his traffic jams if he thinks this honky is gonna help him build more of them.

National promises to build more roads

21.05.2004
8.00am
National leader Don Brash has promised to complete Auckland's roading network within 10 years of his party coming to power.

He has promised a rewrite of the Resource Management Act within nine months of being elected to power so that more roads can be built faster.

Tolling and private financing of roads would be facilitated under a National government.

National would set up a new agency to manage all parts of the public transport system in metropolitan Auckland.

Dr Brash has also said money on rail would only be spent when that was proved more cost-effective than other options.

In a speech to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, Dr Brash said the Automobile Association estimated the cost of completing the Auckland roading network over about 10 years to be some $7 billion -- not including several billion needed for capital expenditure on public transport.

Currently about half that figure was in sight when current funding, money from Infrastructure Auckland, and the Government's promise last December of $1.6b spread over 10 years was taken into account.

"... the next National government will ensure that the Auckland corridor network is built within no more than 10 years of our election. That should have been done years ago. We will get the job done," he said.

The real solution to Auckland's traffic congestion lay in "building more roads and doing so without further delay".

There were three major hurdles to overcome if Auckland was to get a decent roading network within a decade, he said.

"First, central government needs to remove the legislative obstacles which currently make getting consents to build any major project a hugely slow and expensive process."

The main factor behind delays in getting consents was the Resource Management Act.

"A National government will introduce a substantive RMA Amendment Bill within three months of being elected to office."

It would limit legal aid for objectors to those who were "immediately, genuinely and personally affected" by an application.

It would provide new mechanisms to prevent "vexatious and frivolous objections".

It would allow for direct referral to the Environment Court, and rewrite parts of the Act that were inconsistent with his party's one law for all race relations policy.

"These changes will be in law within nine months of our being elected to office."

Dr Brash also promised changes to the Land Transport Management Act which placed "strict limits" on private sector participation in building roads, and required Transit New Zealand to consult with iwi about individual road projects and the overall prioritisation of the roading building programme

National would radically change the law within a year of being elected to power, he said.

Dr Brash said a single agency, perhaps called Transport Auckland, needed to be established. It would be responsible for management and control over all parts of the public transport system in metropolitan Auckland.

Its board would be elected using the current electoral college process, widely accepted by Auckland local bodies, augmented with representatives from central government because of the crucial roles Transfund and Transit played in the Auckland roading system.

Transfund would bulk fund Transport Auckland with Auckland's share of central government transport funding -- estimated to be 32 per cent of the total -- and the assets of Infrastructure Auckland and Auckland Regional Transport Network Ltd.

Dr Brash said tolls and congestion pricing could have an enormously beneficial impact on road congestion.

"Over time, we should move away from heavy dependence on property taxes, excise taxes on petrol and road user chargers towards greater use of tolls, which would vary depending on the road and the time of day."

Eventually, there should be scope to reduce both rates and excise taxes on petrol as tolls were introduced "so that the net fiscal effect of introducing tolls in neutral".

New Zealand needed legislation that actively encouraged the private sector to invest in roading either through public/private partnerships, or so-called BOOT schemes where the private sector built, owned and operated roads before finally transferring them back to the government after an agreed period.

Dr Brash said the Government collected about $650 million a year from taxes on petrol over and above what went into roads.

Perhaps some of that revenue should be diverted for a time, he said.

However, right now the constraints were "not financial" -- Transfund ended the last financial year with some $250m in the kitty.

Rather the constraints were in getting the consents needed to start building and getting the decision-making structures right, he said.

Dr Brash also said rail systems were almost certainly a more costly form of public transport than other forms, such as buses.

The next National government would complete rail projects which were already committed but would only spend additional money on the Auckland rail system where that was demonstrably more cost-effective than other options, he said.

Michael Barnett, Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive, welcomed Dr Brash's commitment to fixing Auckland's road problems.

"National's promise to divert some of the $650 million of funds raised from road taxes currently going into the consolidated fund back to help faster network completion if and when a money shortage is a problem, is also greatly welcomed," Mr Barnett said.

The commitment to shift the funding of roading from dependence on rates and road taxes towards greater use of tolls is a call that business has been making to Government for the last five years, "but which has fallen on deaf ears".

It was refreshing to hear from a politician who has clearly listened to the concerns of business.

"We will want to ensure that the sense of urgency and timeline to get these changes in place inside a year are honoured," Mr Barnett said.

- NZPA

North Shore busway going ahead after 17-year wait

28.05.2004
By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Work will start before Christmas on the $235 million North Shore busway - 17 years after the project was first mooted.

This follows a decision yesterday from the state funding agency Transfund to grant $180 million for the 7.3km two-lane busway from Constellation Drive to Esmonde Rd, and for a 1.2km single-lane stretch to the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Earthworks have begun on two of the project's five proposed bus stations, which North Shore City Council will build at a cost of $74 million, helped by a $40 million grant from Infrastructure Auckland.

Transit New Zealand, which will build the busway itself, included a $19 million cost escalation allowance on top of a $161 million main estimate in its grant application to Transfund.

It had already received $36 million from the agency to upgrade the Esmonde Rd interchange with the Northern Motorway, which will allow buses from Auckland to join the busway at the proposed Akoranga bus station.

North Shore Mayor George Wood said yesterday's decision was great news for his city, which would undertake $9 million of works associated with the Akoranga station.

The council's work programme would include a link road and bridge to the station from Fred Thomas Drive and tie-ins with a widened Esmonde Rd.

ALPURT B2.

4 lane (2/2) motorway (toll)
7.5 km long
$260m with a toll to be payed by users.
Project completion in 2008.

Route map.

http://www.transit.govt.nz/alpurt_b2/images/alpurt_map_large.jpg

Exiting ALPURT to Orewa.

http://www.transit.govt.nz/alpurt_b2/images/Un-spec%20road_77.jpg


Favoured electronic toll.

http://www.transit.govt.nz/alpurt_b2/images/victoria_toll_road_gantry.jpg

Fuck paying $1.80 for the Puhoi Extension!!!!

I'll just keep using the old Rd (S.H 1A and S.H 17) if they try to put that on me,it was meant to be built last year or even earlier.



Yeah right. It wont just be the Puhoi extention. Soon you will be driving via Hellensville,Mt Albert and Great South Rd to drive through Auckland toll free (that is if you dont move to Perth beforehand).
Construction on ALPURT B was supposed to start in 2000 but the enviromental court held it up 4 years. It would be completed now otherwise.

$1.80 to goto Puhoi? What a rip off. they should be paying people $1.80+ just to go there at all.

$1.80? I mean people will have so many 20c coins as change from their $2

Some woman near Waiwera fucked the whole thing up because she didn't want the motorway to destroy a swamp with some native trees in it.I bet it costs these nobody's pittance to fuck up major projects like this.

@KIWIKAAS:Is there going to be tolls on other sections of the Northern Motorway after the Puhoi Extn is built,in that case I will just have to swallow my pride,and pay.

If not,I could just use the old East Coast Rd and then get onto the bridge at Wairau Park/Northcote Rd.

are these perth's old old trains that auckland use now? [pictured in perth]
http://www.mxskinz.com/johndolphin/pla6.jpg

Yes that's them. Or trains very similar if not. They're really shoddy. I've only been on one once, and that was enough to put me off for good, or until they get some new trains.

Apparently they are getting some newer ones this year

Some good news for Auckland transport.

Althouh i do reckon they should develop more cycleways in the CBD, perhaps alongside the busway that is about to be built. Cycling=no pollution at all.

______________________________________________________________
NZ HERALD
Rail funding steams ahead

17.06.2004
By JULIET ROWAN
Rail received the lion's share of almost $60 million in transport grants announced by Infrastructure Auckland yesterday.

The regional funding agency gave $25.5 million for a project to improve 11 railway stations throughout the Auckland region. An additional $9.5 million was allocated for a "baby Britomart" station development at Henderson.

The Auckland Regional Transport Network (Artnl) project will revamp 11 of about 40 stations in the region.

"Baby Britomart", a joint project by Artnl and Waitakere City Council, will create a transport interchange for pedestrians, cyclists, trains, buses and cars.

The aim is also to attract commercial and residential development in the Henderson Town Centre area.

Platforms, lighting, seating, signage, access and security will be upgraded at the other 11 stations. Park-and-ride facilities, drop-off points and bus interchanges will be added to some.

The stations are Papakura, Homai, Puhinui, Manurewa, Middlemore, Panmure, Orakei, Meadowbank, Morningside, Ellerslie and Baldwin Ave.

Artnl chief executive Martin Gummer said work could begin as early as October and would be completed between March and September next year.

The upgrades are part of a wider rail project for the Auckland region that aims to boost the number of rail trips to 20 million a year by 2015. The current figure is just over 3 million.

The Henderson station is projected to cost $13.5 million. Waitakere City Council initially asked Infrastructure Auckland for $11.6 million and was granted just over $8 million.

But lobbying by Mayor Bob Harvey saw the amount rise to $9.5 million.

The $25.5 million grant for the 11 stations will cover 86 per cent of the project cost. Local councils will make up the rest.

The money comes after a $6 million grant last year that was used to create three signature stations at Glen Innes, Papatoetoe and Ranui.

Other transport grants included $13.66 million for a "busway" in central Auckland.

It will run from Britomart to Newmarket via Customs St, Anzac Ave, Symonds St, Grafton Bridge, Park Rd and Khyber Pass.

Permanent bus lanes will be installed along the route and carparks will be removed.

Waitakere residents will gain 16km of 2m-wide walkways and cycleways along the banks of the Oratia, Waikumete and Opunaku streams to Henderson Town Centre with money from a $5.2 million grant.

In Manukau City, $4.1 million will be used to fund more than 40km of cycleways, mainly along main roads.

A $1.75 million grant to North Shore City and Rodney District will be used for a global positioning satellite (GPS) system that will give buses more green lights and allow passengers waiting at stops to see when the next bus will arrive.

Yesterday's grants from Infrastructure Auckland, which has $1.3 billion in assets, were its last. Regional funding decisions pass to the Auckland Regional Transport Authority at the end of the month.

Infrastructure Auckland grants

$25.5 million for revamping railway stations in the Auckland region.

$13.66 million for a central city "busway".

$9.5 million for a new Henderson railway station.

$5.2 million for walkways and cycleways in Waitakere City.

$4.1 million for cycleways in Manukau City.

$3.3 million for regional stormwater projects.

$1.75 million for a global positioning satellite (GPS) system along bus routes in North Shore City and Rodney District.

Xtra MSN News
30/06/2004 05:22 PM
NewstalkZB

Sound, sensible and affordable.

That is Auckland mayor John Banks' view of the eastern transport corridor, which got the green light today from the council's transport committee.

It will cross Hobson bay instead of tunnelling under Parnell.

There is to be greater emphasis on rail, and bus lanes from Panmure into the city are scrapped.

Mr Banks says the council is not putting a figure on the cost, but it will be a lot less than $4 billion.

He says down-scaling could also save $100 million on land purchase.

And John Banks says they are queueing up across the Tasman to build Auckland's eastern transport corridor.

He says the project looks good for a private-public partnership, and he has spoken to three road-builders in Australia who are keen to have a close look at it.

its a start, but they are going to have to put alot more $$$ to get real results

I am aware that they are doing similar work on Glenfield Rd but here are a couple of pics of general roading in Brisbane. On many routes (including roads along the proposed Eastern Highway route) could be upgraded to this type of through road.
http://server4.vnpages.net/~one/road/04.jpg
http://server4.vnpages.net/~one/road/07.jpg
http://server4.vnpages.net/~one/road/12.jpg
http://server4.vnpages.net/~one/road/13.jpg

Haha Glenfield road? Are you sure? I go there alot and I havn't seen much work being done.

Haha Glenfield road? Are you sure? I go there alot and I havn't seen much work being done.

Its on the North Shore City website. Work starts September
http://www.northshorecity.govt.nz/images/glenfield-rd/glenfieldrd-proposed.jpg

Hmm that's not much different to the way that stretch of road looks now. The only difference is those 2 lanes on the right (near the bottom) currently merge into one. Maybe those bus lanes are new though.

Hmm that's not much different to the way that stretch of road looks now. The only difference is those 2 lanes on the right (near the bottom) currently merge into one. Maybe those bus lanes are new though.
Nope, no merge to one. 4-lanes.

Hmm that's not much different to the way that stretch of road looks now. The only difference is those 2 lanes on the right (near the bottom) currently merge into one. Maybe those bus lanes are new though.
Nope, no merge to one. 4-lanes + bus lane.
The residents opted for a no parking throughway.
Work should start on a $12m upgrade of Glenfield Rd in September.

Having concluded its latest round of consultation on the project, the North Shore City Council is now going forward with obtaining the necessary planning approvals to construct the first phase of the corridor upgrade from Bentley Ave to Camrose Rd and the Sunset Rd intersection.

Chairperson of the council’s works and environment committee, Councillor Joel Cayford, says Glenfield Rd is a major traffic route experiencing high volumes of vehicle traffic. “It is expected that the amount of traffic using this route will increase in the future. We are upgrading the road to improve safety and increase its capacity to move people and traffic, while improving its amenity for people who live nearby,” he says.

The proposed road upgrading will occur between Bentley Ave and Sunset Rd to provide for four lanes of traffic throughout the route. On road cycle lanes will also be provided, and bus priority measures will be established at Bentley Ave, Hogans Rd, and Sunset Rd intersections

Bruce.

wtf,you are appearing as KIWIKAAS again.

There are some stretches of Great South Rd which could do with some work like that too.

wtf,you are appearing as KIWIKAAS again.

There are some stretches of Great South Rd which could do with some work like that too.

Oops.Here I am again. Sorry for the confusion. Just checking my old CP and doing some KIWIKAAS replies.

There are lots of roads in Auckland that could use that sort of treatment and all together would cost much less than 1 Eastern Hwy.

What about Onewa Rd, Lake Rd, Dominion Rd, Mt eden Rd, Sandringham rd, New North Rd, Great North Rd, Newton Rd, Khyber Pass Rd, Manukau Rd, Balmoral and Greenlane rds, Mt Albert Rd, Kohimarama Rd, St Johns Rd, to name but a few.
The whole Auckland road system needs a big make over. As it is now, it hardly compares to many European urban road systems (and thats saying something).

Yes,I've always wondered what it must be like trying to drive into town on Dominion Rd in peak hour.
You can see the Skytower,but it's gonna take a loooooong time to get there!!

Balmoral Road/Greenlane West is actually quite good at the moment-I was impressed last time I was on it,plus the intersections it has with other major roads are quite generous in size.Only 2-2 if I remember correctly,but it is nice and straight and I think there is also a lot of on street parking in sections,wide enough to make it 3-3.

Are Europes Urban road systems not so good? Is it because of the age of some of the roads and surrounding buildings?

Yes,I've always wondered what it must be like trying to drive into town on Dominion Rd in peak hour.
You can see the Skytower,but it's gonna take a loooooong time to get there!!

Balmoral Road/Greenlane West is actually quite good at the moment-I was impressed last time I was on it,plus the intersections it has with other major roads are quite generous in size.Only 2-2 if I remember correctly,but it is nice and straight and I think there is also a lot of on street parking in sections,wide enough to make it 3-3.

Are Europes Urban road systems not so good? Is it because of the age of some of the roads and surrounding buildings?

Netherlands:
Apart from the obvious older areas, many of the urban roads were constructed during the recovery period after WW2. At that time very few people had a car and no allowances were made for generous parking. With an expanded tram network and new laws governing the way traffic and bicycles should be catered for (1970s) meant that many standard roads have to cater for tram lines, traffic lanes, parking, and segregated cycle ways and footpaths. As youn can imagine, this can become a squeeze. On the same note many post war through roads were built to accomodate 2 lanes of traffic per direction + a parking lane and footpath prior to the cycleway legestlation. On the other hand, Nothshore and most post war Auckland suburbs stuck with the old 1 lane per direction + parking lane layout, with apparently no thought to the future.

Bruce.

So,do motorways take most of the through traffic in the Netherlands around towns/cities or are there a lot of towns with traffic still passing through on 4 or 6 lane arterials or "main streets" ?

Nope, no merge to one. 4-lanes.


No. I meant:

You see those 2 lanes on the render going north? Well those currently merge into one lane after the lights. So now it's 2, plus a bus lane.

So,do motorways take most of the through traffic in the Netherlands around towns/cities or are there a lot of towns with traffic still passing through on 4 or 6 lane arterials or "main streets" ?

There are nearly 2500km of motorway in Holland in a country 40000km² (NZ = aprox 250000km²) or about 1/3 the size of the North Island. Travelling by road any real distance is on motorways (the motorways are the countries highways). There are some secondary roads that pass through towns but these are usually just 2 lane roads. Virtually all cities and major towns have bypass roads. You will only pass through a town when driving locally (and even then that will most likely not be the main shopping street). Main streets in NZ tend to be wider than the old village centres in European countries so it is usually possible to run the through traffic right through the centre of town (although this makes for a less attractive and offen noisey main street).

Interesting.
There are a lot of towns in NZ that could use a bypass,but few would have the numbers of traffic on their existing main through route to justify the money involved in building one.Then there are those which desperately need a bypass.
Cambridge is a good example,but I'm not quite sure what will happen to the Waikato Expressway when it gets to Cambridge.


I often wonder,if New Zealand ever had an especially bad year (or years) for road crashes on SH1,with a lot higher number of deaths,would there suddenly be serious proposals for an Auckland - Wellington Motorway.There have been hundreds of fatalities on the Waikato stretch of this road and it is only now that a quality road is being built there.

I guess after Cambridge it will be Tirau,then after Tirau it will be Putaruru,then Tokoroa,then Taupo etc,etc.

Interesting.
There are a lot of towns in NZ that could use a bypass,but few would have the numbers of traffic on their existing main through route to justify the money involved in building one.Then there are those which desperately need a bypass.
Cambridge is a good example,but I'm not quite sure what will happen to the Waikato Expressway when it gets to Cambridge.


I often wonder,if New Zealand ever had an especially bad year (or years) for road crashes on SH1,with a lot higher number of deaths,would there suddenly be serious proposals for an Auckland - Wellington Motorway.There have been hundreds of fatalities on the Waikato stretch of this road and it is only now that a quality road is being built there.

I guess after Cambridge it will be Tirau,then after Tirau it will be Putaruru,then Tokoroa,then Taupo etc,etc.

1973 and 1989 were very bad years I believe. The road toll now is somewhat lower at around 400 I think (the high was 800+ I beleive). You might be interested to know that the road toll here with 16 million people is around the 1000 mark. Thats a rate of about 2 thirds (per capita) of that in NZ (to have the same NZ would have to have a toll of 250 per year) . It has alot to do with road enginering. Dispite a 18 year old age limit and expensive (and compulsary) driver education the behaviour of drivers is hardly beter than in NZ. However there is much invested in enginering of roads to make them safer.
A few examples:
1.All motorways have steel crash barriers instead of concrete. Even a motorway with a grass median 12 metres wide has a crash barrier. All on and off ramps have a long merging/ departing lane of about 300m. All busy motorways have speed/lane closure signage every 500m above each lane (so that they can show variable messaging per lane).
2.All residential streets have speed bumps.
3.There is a clear difference in road marking between 50 and 30km zones and zones of 70,80,100 or 120 kmph.
4.On arterial roads of 70/80 kmph there are 50kmph speed bumps preceding traffic lights.
5. There is a long delay (sometime 5 seconds or more between switching to red on the one direction to green on the other).
6.Enginering of residential neighbourhoods to cancel out through traffic. 7.Seperate cycle ways and/or lanes with seperate traffic lights (you will never see a cyclist on the motorvehicle lanes on a highway).
8.Inside urban areas the lanes are skinnier than in NZ to keep speed down. Even on multilane roads the lanes are never more than 3 metres wide and offen less. This means that a truck or bus has difficulty fitting into the lane and that overtaking cars must use the extremities of their lane to pass.
9. Speed cameras with a 3kmph allowance (in NZ thats 10kmph).
10. If you hit a pedestrian or cyclist you (as a car/truck/bus driver) are automatically responsible (no matter what, unless you where standing still at a traffic light and a cyclist runs into you). The premis here is that the cyclist is more vulnerable and as a driver you have the responsibility to anticipate and adjust to situations where a colission might occur.

As for bypasses in NZ. There are plenty of places I can think off that should have a bypass whether that be a motorway, expressway, 2 lane highway or a urban road diverting traffic from the main shopping/ cultural street.
Btw. A bypass of Cambridge is in the Waikato Exwy package.

I thought this was interesting...
btw- anyone else heard of the 'Peak Oil' idea? There was a good article in National Geographic about it a few months back.


Road report ignores reality of 'peak oil', say Greens

NZ Herald
25.08.2004
1.00pm
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is questioning the wisdom of building billions of dollars worth of new roads around the country, saying the rising price of oil will eventually leave them empty.

A four-pronged roading spend-up is recommended in a report commissioned by the Automobile Association which was released this morning.

The report says the economic benefits of completing a national passing lanes project, Auckland's western ring road, Wellington's regional land transport package and Western Bay of Plenty's Strategic Roading Network will be four times the cost of $2.4 billion.

The report was produced by Allen Consulting Group and Infometrics, with backing from the Employers and Manufacturers Association and the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

"This report applies to a fantasy world in which petrol is less than a dollar a litre and where everyone owns a car and drives it everywhere," said Ms Fitzsimons, the Green Party's Transport spokesperson.

"The reality is we're fast using up all the easily extractible oil reserves and fast approaching the point of peak oil supply, after which oil will be priced beyond the affordability of the ordinary motorist."

Ms Fitzsimons said planners should be preparing for a fundamental change in transport behaviour rather than fuelling road-builders' fantasies.

"A case in point is the Western Bay of Plenty project, which is touted in the AA report as demonstrating 'the greatest benefits to its region and the nation for every dollar spent'.

"The Port of Tauranga already has an excellent rail terminal that receives 60 per cent of the freight arriving at the port. Instead of throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at building roads for trucks, we should be looking at using the existing rail network throughout the Bay and the surrounding region and building links to key industries that use the port."

"Similarly in Auckland, which has already invested in Britomart and improved rail services. The priority must be to connect the city by rail, with a city-to-airport line and a connection from Britomart to the western line, so that the city is part of a through-service and not just a rail dead-end."

Alasdair Thompson, chief executive of the EMA, said the report found the degree of connectedness provided by major urban road networks in New Zealand was lower than in comparable countries.

He said investing far more in roads would offer a long list of benefits.

"The gains would be like those achieved in Australia including lower vehicle operating costs, less time spent in travel, better safety with fewer accidents and less accident damage, better environmental outcomes, and higher work productivity.

"The benefits flowing on indirectly would be evident not only in lower costs for moving freight such as groceries, and less costs for passenger transport, but also as they translate into higher incomes and better public health."

He said the report found that value of New Zealand roads declined as a proportion of GDP by over 19 per cent in the six years between 1993 and 1999, and has since increased by around nine per cent.

At the same time over the past decade the total kilometres travelled by both passenger vehicles increased by 113 per cent with distances travelled by commercial vehicles increasing 122 per cent.

Mr Thompson that despite recent increases in road funding, the annual spending on roads in New Zealand was still below the OECD average of 1.3 per cent of GDP.

"This indicates if we don't accelerate our commitment to road construction, our standards of education and health will continue to slip backwards compared to other OECD countries."

National Party transport spokesman Maurice Williamson said the report showed the time for talk was over.

"This report supports the view that huge benefits will be gained by pushing on urgently with key roading projects, and it is clear the Government must move now," he said.

"Unlike most other areas of policy, the Government could have a win-win-win by listening to these findings."

The four major projects studied by Allen Consulting would all eventually be built anyway but this report showed what massive gains could be made by front-end loading the funding through infrastructure bonds and completing these projects by 2012, Mr Williamson said.

Act Party leader Rodney Hide said the report highlighted "woeful underfunding" of New Zealand's road infrastructure, with the cost counted in lost lives and economic opportunities foregone.

Revised highway ends up as byway

26.08.2004
By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Auckland's controversial eastern highway faces being bled into a pale shadow of its former self, reducing traffic to 50km/h on long stretches and to a two-lane bridge across Hobson Bay.

Both Auckland City Mayor John Banks and his Manukau counterpart, Sir Barry Curtis, endorsed in principle yesterday a consultants' report recommending a hacked-back version of the project on which they have hung their political hats.

But they emphasised it would be up to their councils to make final decisions after the October elections, leaving opponents concerned the project may yet be revved back up, once political pressure eases.

The arterial road rather than motorway project now recommended by Opus International Consultants at a cost of about $1.2 billion is a far cry from a grandiose proposal proffered in March which threatened to balloon to almost $4 billion.

Auckland City passenger transport committee chairman Greg McKeown, who heads the project's political steering committee, said the far leaner scheme represented a "big step forward, moving a smaller foot".

He emphasised a need to "manage" travel demand and encourage greater use of buses and trains to complement road-building.

But AA spokesman Stephen Selwood lamented what he called a significantly compromised option which would deny motorists a direct connection to the Northwestern Motorway through Grafton Gully.

"We risk managing down our ability to do business and enjoy our way of life - it reduces our mobility, which is what stimulates economic growth."

Instead of extending to at least three lanes in each direction, including a bus lane and with parallel pedestrian and cycleways along its 27km route, the project is likely to be cut to no more than two lanes.

Bus lanes from Britomart to Panmure and a tunnel under Parnell have already been chopped from the project, and the consultants now recommend that a bridge across Hobson Bay be confined to just one traffic lane in each direction.

This has failed to placate Action Hobson city council candidate Christine Caughey, who said any spread of tarmac across the bay was unacceptable.

Gone is a plan to widen Tamaki Drive to at least four lanes each way, which Mr McKeown said would have required a major harbour reclamation and a sprawling and unsightly traffic interchange around Gladstone Rd on the waterfront.

Also off the drawing board are sections of elevated motorway next to Mt Wellington Highway and Waipuna Rd, which will now be merely widened for inclusion in the project, although there will be a duplicate Pakuranga Bridge.

A link to East Tamaki through Allens Rd, entailing another bridge across Tamaki River to Mt Wellington via Panama Rd, will be considered later as a possible add-on at an extra cost of about $400 million.

The use of existing roads means vehicles will be restricted to 50km/h everywhere except for the 9km between Hobson Bay and Glen Innes, where speeds of up to 80km/h will be allowed.

Tamaki Drive will remain a 50km zone, after the new road joins it next to the Outdoor Boating Club, and project director Grant Kirby admitted the stretch between there and the central city would remain a traffic bottleneck.

The only indicated bus lanes will be between Pakuranga and Panmure, where passengers will be encouraged to switch to trains, but not even these are guaranteed unless they can be squeezed into the existing Ti Rakau Drive without any neighbouring property purchases.

Only about 260 homes and businesses will be displaced along the route, compared with 1270 under the original plan.

Just over 200 will be in Auckland City, mostly around Panmure and Glen Innes, where the road will be sunk into a 350m covered trench for $60 million to $90 million to avoid cutting off the town centre from business and university developments.

Mr Banks said property purchases in the earlier plan would have cost Auckland about $900 million, compared with about $90 million for the new proposal.

Neither mayor was willing to concede defeat yesterday, with Sir Barry calling the new proposal an excellent one and Mr Banks denying he ever committed himself to anything grander. He admitted not realising it would have been so difficult to fulfil his pledge at the last election to build an "eastern transport corridor".

Yeah, this is good news- the original proposal was ridiculously large. Still doubful about it actually being built though, as the funding looks shaky.

Yeah, this is good news- the original proposal was ridiculously large. Still doubful about it actually being built though, as the funding looks shaky.

Looks like it will more or less come down to an upgrade of the existing roads, which is exactly what it should be.

Add a lane to the Sthern Mwy for the same result as the whole expressway proposal for a fraction of the cost.

NZ Herald
$23m project on track

18.09.2004
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pics/ACFLIBEAaGEh.JPG

Workers lay the first section of double-tracking along Auckland's western rail line in a $23.2 million project designed to speed up peak-hour services.

Trains should be running on the new Mt Eden section within a week and the total 7.5km dual-passage between Boston Rd and Avondale should be finished by January.

Train services will be replaced by bus shuttles all day today between Morningside Station and Britomart, and between peak hours during week-days for the next four weeks.

Found this article on average driving speeds to work in Auckland , Tauranga , Wellington , and Christchurch . A bit interesting !

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3587338&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

Found this article on average driving speeds to work in Auckland , Tauranga , Wellington , and Christchurch . A bit interesting !

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3587338&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

Yeah, rush hour can be a pain in Auckland! Whenever it's convenient I catch a Flyer bus though, which helps. But trying to travel north-south through the city and vice versa using public transport simply does not work unless time is not an issue. I had a friend living on the North Shore and had to travel to Manukau City each day, using public transport. Took him more than 2 hours each way - travelling - waiting - switching buses/trains - more waiting etc.

You've probably seen the TV commercial promoting Dunedin using the Auckland traffic as a 'push' factor.

Would n't see that add over here in OZ my friend ,Visited Auckland a few years back with some Aussie Mates , they could n't believe the traffic in Auckland ,and when we drove around Spaghetti junction a few times they were ready to vomit , LOL . :)

I've never struck traffic as a problem and I'm not just ignoring it either. I must be lucky. I can get up at 9am, leave home at like 9:15 and be on time for a 9:30 lecture in Mt Albert without speeding.

lol Tom,how far from Mt Albert do you live.....?.....


When I was staying in Takanini and going into MIT every day for three weeks,the traffic varied a lot from day to day,but most days I felt sorry for all the people carrying on northbound after I exited in Otara(ironically)

Some days it was bumper to bumper from Gt Sth Rd to East Tamaki Rd....other days it was 100 km/h all the way.

The fact that the M'way narrows from 3 lanes down to 2 at Manukau NEVER helps !!!

But I guess that is somethang to do with the eventual connection with the S.W M'way(SH20) ???

Well I live on the Shore. Quite far away but I get off the bridge at Shelly Beach Road (Ponsonby) and drive around the coast through Westmere and past the Zoo into Pt Chev so it doesn't take long. Having said that, it can take a lot longer - and not because of the bridge or anything like that. The part that makes all the difference is getting onto Onewa Road. Sometimes I can sit on the side street for like 20 mins in a queue because the traffic lights only go green for about 20 seconds, and then red for like 5 mins, and people push into the line out of side streets. So in one phase the cars might not move at all. After I'm on Onewa it takes about 15 mins to get over the harbour bridge, through Ponsonby, Westmere, Western Springs and into Pt Chev.

YES!!

I know what you mean about Onewa road.There is a suburban street that comes around the side of a hill to meet that intersection,I was cruising around the N/S one day....just having a looksy...when to my horror,I struck Onewa Road/Northern M'way.

It took forever.....! Tom if you do that every day,you must have a very high tolorance for stress lol!!!

Esmonde Rd is exactly the same deal.

I reckon they should put cycleways and pedestrian walkways on the harbour bridge. Foolish designers completely forgot about us when they built the thing! If Sydney has cycleways and a walkway, why can't we? It would be rather handy for Shore people who didn't want to drive.

Well if I leave home after 9am, then most of it has cleared and so yeah I can get to uni by 9:30. However if I leave at say 8:30, I might only get to uni at like 9:15 because I'll be waiting for so long.

That street is Queen Street. You can't cheat and go up Church Street then out of Faulkner Ave (back on to Queen St but further up in the Queue) because they made it one-way, however I've seen people do it.

Also going down Onewa from the top would probably be just as bad if not worse. The quickest thing to do is go left at the top of Queen St (usually a free lane), heading up Onewa road, turn into the BP station on the right, buy a chocolate bar or something, then get back into the traffic flowing down (a quick left exit from the forecourt). I found that out when I was low on petrol once but I've never used it to beat the traffic.


flyin: I think they were making a plan to have cycleways at one stage,

I reckon they should put cycleways and pedestrian walkways on the harbour bridge. Foolish designers completely forgot about us when they built the thing! If Sydney has cycleways and a walkway, why can't we? It would be rather handy for Shore people who didn't want to drive.

You cant really compare the location of the Auckl HB with the Syd HB. The Syd HB is a relatively short span and is level. It also connects 2 major business districts. The Akl HB is 2 km long with a gradient and is far from any business area. It would cost many millions to build a ped/cycleway and the few people that would use it (a few cycling zeelots and enthuastic walkers who dont mind being blown about) hardly justifies the cost.

Did anyone see the plan for a Hbr Br cycleway/walkway on the news a few weeks ago?
They showed an artists impression of it....
It was like another mini clippon,on the Western side of the bridge,sitting slightly lower than the roadway.

It looked good,but not sure if it will go ahead.......

Well people run across the harbour bridge anyway, running lane or not. Albeit naked.

The cycling zealots need to shout louder.

You cant really compare the location of the Auckl HB with the Syd HB. The Syd HB is a relatively short span and is level. It also connects 2 major business districts. The Akl HB is 2 km long with a gradient and is far from any business area. It would cost many millions to build a ped/cycleway and the few people that would use it (a few cycling zeelots and enthuastic walkers who dont mind being blown about) hardly justifies the cost.
Sadly your right about it not likely to be built.
Why couldn't Auckland's Hb be built similar to Sydney's then to include the facility. Its called exclusion by design, cause roading engineers don't care about cyclists.

Stupid Question:

Is there room for a Rail line on the Auckland Harbour Bridge,as it is now?

Some roading engineers are anti cycling.

Stupid Question:

Is there room for a Rail line on the Auckland Harbour Bridge,as it is now?


No, unless they take away half the car lanes.

No, unless they take away half the car lanes.

Or sling the lines under the clip-ons (with some very major structural strengthening).

I rekon when they replace the clip ons in 10 years they should fully revamp the bridge with all this stuff. I mean close the whole thing for like 6 months and sack it out in bling bling.

Yeah I think your right Tom, they need a major upgrade of the bridge! Heck why not rip the thing down and build a newer, bigger one with all the stuff incl.

Yeah then they wouldn't need to build a second. Just rebuild the first one again. It could be part of a new initiative to get more business on the North Shore LOL. Everyone has to work/live on their side and competitions can be started each week.

I just had a game of indoor bowls and won./

Yeah I think your right Tom, they need a major upgrade of the bridge! Heck why not rip the thing down and build a newer, bigger one with all the stuff incl.

YEAH! WITH ALL THE STUFF!

I'd like to see more 'stuff' too actually. We need to talk to that 'guy'.

Or, just build another one. A date seems to be somewhere between 2016 and 2020. As long as it's more stable than the Millenium Bridge. (The one in London, I mean) - It had to be closed a few days after opening and stabilised. And it does not even carry hard traffic. The Harbour Bridge Clip ons suffers the same bounce when to many feet walk in sinc (on the odd occasion it is allowed). Remember the TV pics a few months ago.

Yeah I saw that, and the Millenium bridge in London on TV.

Hey Kiwikaas something always niggles me. Why is the hague called 'THE' hague and not just 'Hague'.

Yeah I saw that, and the Millenium bridge in London on TV.

Hey Kiwikaas something always niggles me. Why is the hague called 'THE' hague and not just 'Hague'.

The actual name is s' Gravenhage or in modern language Den Haag. I'm not sure what is means exactly but haag means hedge. So it appears to mean ''the hedge'' or atleast something to do with trees. Hague might be old english for the same thing.

I'd like to see more 'stuff' too actually. We need to talk to that 'guy'.

Which 'guy' is that? lol

BTW, The Hedge is a hilarious name for a city!

The Hedge is an awesome name. If you think about it alot of places are named after very simple things like that. I think there's a town in Australia called Townsville.

Maybe it means 'Grave Hedges' or something?









^^^ I just made an idiot out of myself,didn't I ??

^^^ I just made an idiot out of myself,didn't I ??

Its alright.

The Hedge is an awesome name. If you think about it alot of places are named after very simple things like that. I think there's a town in Australia called Townsville.

You bet there is. It's named after Robert Towns, the guy who financed it's establishment in 1864. We take a bit of stick for it but at least it wasn't called Townstown.

I'll take this oppurtunity to plug the Townsville projects thread
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=102191
And the Townsville building diagrams thread
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=124992

Cheers Oriolus.



lol @ Townstown.

Oh sweet Oriolus. I didn't know that. I thought it was because they didn't know what to call it so they just found the word town and added ville, but at least there is a Robert Towns.

'Engineering First' hits rail tracks
http://www.arc.govt.nz/arc/library/s92817_14.jpg

6 October 2004

An engineering and technological first for New Zealand will begin carrying passengers on Auckland’s rail network this month.

The SD “driving cab” is a unique type of carriage that increases train efficiency and capacity.

It provides a new way of controlling Auckland’s new SA Trains by allowing “push-pull” operation of the train with only one locomotive or engine.

Up to ten SA Trains and SD cabs are being refurbished by 2006, in an Auckland Regional Council project to address the chronic shortage of trains in the region. The ARC Rail Project Director, Elena Trout, says before the first SD cab arrived, the SA trains were powered and driven by locomotives at both ends.

“In the new SD driving cab the controls of the train are recreated in a special compartment in the carriage. This means the SA Train locomotive can be controlled remotely, increasing efficiency and capacity. This technology has never before been used in New Zealand, and is the result of extensive engineering work”.

The new cab has been custom designed and built for Auckland, and also includes unique facilities to carry wheelchairs and cycles.

It features a modern, European inspired interior and exterior, and carries up to 50 seated passengers including an extra large standing capacity.

The SD cabs have been completely stripped and re-built from the same British Rail MKII carriages used for the SA carriages. They form part of a $61 million train refurbishment package which includes an upgrade of the older “ADK” trains.

The SA carriages recently won a highly commended award for public transport innovation from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport New Zealand Inc. The SD and SA carriages were developed by Toll NZ’s Professional Services Group, and were constructed at the company’s Hillside Engineering Workshops in Dunedin. The first cab will begin services this month, with one of the three SA trains that have come online since April 2004.

Source: www.arc.govt.nz

This looks very neat.

For the Auckland locals these will be old.

Widening Sthbound at Symonds St
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/grafton_3a_widening.jpg

http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/aerial4.jpg
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/aerial3.jpg

Newmarket (Khyber Pass-Gillies Ave)
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/aerial1.jpg
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/aerial2.jpg
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/enclosed_lane.jpg

What they really needed to do is widen the Victoria Park flyover first- that was crazy. Or even tunnel it under the park, using the 'cut and cover' construction method.

Yeah I wonder whatever happened to fixing vic park?

Goodbye to the Banks highway


11.12.04
By BERNARD ORSMAN


The Eastern highway is history after Auckland City councillors yesterday voted to dump the project in favour of moving people by rapid transit to and from the city's booming southeastern industrial and residential suburbs.

"Today is the day we have saved Hobson Bay," declared transport and urban linkages committee chairman Richard Simpson, one of two Action Hobson councillors elected two months ago on an anti-highway ticket.

By a vote of 8-3, the committee abandoned the highway component of the highway from Glen Innes to the city down the environmentally sensitive Purewa Creek, across Orakei Basin and Hobson Bay to join Tamaki Drive.

The decision will be ratified by the full council next week.

Mr Simpson said the council had protected a natural landform in Hobson Bay and the challenge now was to embrace rapid transit to move people, not cars, around the region with the help of the city's new transport planning body, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

This followed advice to the committee by council officers that there was a "serious and urgent need to improve transport choices and infrastructure in the southeast". Doing nothing was not an option.

Not only was the existing land use and transport infrastructure unacceptable and unsustainable but future growth in the east and southeast and neighbouring suburbs in Manukau needed addressing, officers said.

The suburbs of Glen Innes, Panmure and Sylvia Park were forecast to grow from 12,000 to 32,000 over the next 20 years; Mt Wellington quarry was being turned into housing for up to 8000 people; Auckland University's Tamaki campus was forecast to grow to 10,000 students and staff and a nearby technology park would provide up to 6000 jobs; and a huge retail, commercial and residential development was planned for Sylvia Park.

The movement of freight, goods and services would increase to and from the southeast and there would be more traffic on arterial and local roads.

Doug Armstrong, a Citizens & Ratepayers Now councillor and highway supporter, said the election result that gave anti-highway opponents a majority was not a mandate to carry out a demolition job on the highway without public consultation.

"This is out of sync with a majority of people's views on completion of the motorway network."

Victoria Park may get more than one tunnel


07.12.04
By MATHEW DEARNALEY


Transit New Zealand has confirmed its readiness to dig a "partial" tunnel under Victoria Park in Auckland to clear one of the country's most notorious motorway chokepoints.

And the national roading agency is not ruling out eventually building a second tunnel under the park, once it completes studies on the route of a new harbour crossing costing up to $3 billion.

The agency was guarded until yesterday about its intentions, having yet to discuss them with local body leaders.

But it has since confirmed the Herald's disclosure of a decision by its board last week to support a one-way tunnel as a first-stage solution to chronic traffic congestion between the harbour bridge and southern motorway.

It is arranging meetings next week with the Auckland and North Shore city councils and the regional council to discuss the proposal, which could take no more than about five years to plan and build, depending on resource management approvals.

The tunnel, which it hopes to build for no more than $200 million to carry northbound traffic, will double the capacity of the existing four-lane viaduct over the park while leaving that structure in service for the next decade or so.

Transit had previously favoured an "iconic" replacement viaduct costing about $160 million rather than a six-lane tunnel running both ways for up to $290 million, unless regional funds could be found to fill the gap.

But the project has been stalled for two years by opposition from the Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Council, concerned about the impact an enlarged flyover would have on Victoria Park.

The Transit board has now agreed to a compromise proposal, for which it is satisfied Government funds are available and which would leave the existing viaduct to carry southbound traffic in the medium term.

It has also left open the possibility of adding a second tunnel below the park, once it has a clearer idea of the route of the next harbour crossing and whether this will go under or over the water.

Detailed scoping work on the next harbour crossing will start in the New Year, but it will take at least 16 years for a new bridge or tunnel to be built across the harbour.

If it is to be a bridge, an indicative study has identified a route west of the existing harbour bridge, but a tunnel to the east may have to reach under Victoria Park as well.

The initial tunnel would run for about 600m, just west of the existing viaduct, north from Wellington St to the Assembly of God Church carpark next to the Fanshawe St on-ramp to the motorway.

A southbound tunnel would present more of an engineering challenge because of a relatively steep climb out of it.

Transit's acting general manager of transport planning, Wayne McDonald, insisted that a partial tunnel had always been within Transit's range of options, despite the two-year planning holdup. "We always talked about a full tunnel option or a partial tunnel option," he said.

Despite suffering from "concrete cancer", the existing viaduct could last up to 50 more years with remediation, he said.

But a one-way tunnel would "get us all going" for now, linking up with $195 million of improvements to the central motorway junction, of which the completion of the first $55 million stage will be marked by Transport Minister Pete Hodgson at a ceremony tomorrow.

Although Transit had not previously planned to start replacing the viaduct until 2009, it is under pressure to keep the momentum going on the junction improvements.

Mr McDonald said resource consents for projects of such a scale could be shortened by goodwill and acceptance at a local level.

St Mary's Bay Association chairman John Hill, whose organisation strongly opposed a replacement viaduct, yesterday welcomed the compromise, but still hoped the motorway could eventually be fully buried under Victoria Park.

Burying the Vic Park section of the m'way is a good idea.
What would you guys prefer as a second harbour crossing- a bridge or tunnel? My vote would go with a tunnel. Less obtrusive.

Bridge. A good design opportunity for a new auckland landmark, good view when driving across, easier to judge congestion (eek)

Khyber Pass viaduct from underneath. Central median now closed with new support beams.
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/median_infill_kpv_2.jpg
And on top. The median section on the Kyber Pass viaduct.
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/median_infill_kpv_1.jpg

New gantry and signage northbound aproaching CMJ.
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/new_motorway_gantry.jpg

New ''Rangitoto'' barriers
http://cmi.transit.govt.nz/photos/cmj/stage1/rangitoto_patterned_barriers.jpg

Is there anymore work around the off-ramp/on-ramp to the port, there was some work over there a little while ago. Also Fanshawe Street, getting rid of the traffic islands to extend the existing roading.

Thye are doing work onfanshawe St at the moment, puting bus lanes on both sides of the road as part of the North Shore Busway

All I've noticed about the busway project are the new Park and Ride stations going up.

East-west motorway link to cost over $1.4 billion

http://media.apn.co.nz/webcontent/image/gif/19traffic.GIF

by Arnold Pickmere


One crucial step in solving Auckland's traffic congestion is to complete the western ring route - a new motorway corridor through the narrow Auckland isthmus.

This major investment will cost $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion, depending on the route and design chosen for the Southwestern Motorway route through Avondale.

As well as providing an alternative route through Auckland it will improve access east and west between rapidly developing areas in the North Shore, Waitakere and Rodney. Already the Upper Harbour Drive route across the Upper Harbour Bridge becomes congested at peak times.

The ring route starts as the Southwestern Motorway (SH20) leading from the Southern Motorway at Manukau. It goes through Manukau City towards Mangere, with an exit on to Puhinui Rd leading to the Auckland International Airport, and Onehunga.

From Onehunga it goes through Mt Roskill, then Avondale, connecting with the Northwestern Motorway (SH16).

That will lead in turn to the Upper Harbour Motorway (SH18) at Westgate, which will go across to the existing Upper Harbour Highway, which connects with the Northern Motorway (SH1).

It will also be a link with the length of State Highway 16 that leads on through Helensville in the west and across to Wellsford - an alternative route to Northland.

It will be more than a decade before the western ring route is complete, but most of it will be available before that. Each project involves extensive consultation with local bodies, residents and others affected, as well as Land Transport NZ's (formerly Transfund) agreement on finance.

Among the projects now being built or planned along the ring route are:

Southwestern Motorway

1. Manukau extension

This $174 million extension links the Southern Motorway at Manukau and the Southwestern Expressway at Puhinui. Construction starts next year. It will probably be finished by the end of 2010.

2. Puhinui interchange

The interchange on the expressway leading towards Mangere Bridge takes this route over Puhinui Rd. Now finished and one of Auckland's busiest interchanges, it was the first step linking the Southern and Southwestern motorways. It cost $14.5 million.

3. New Manukau crossing

This is planned next to the existing four-lane bridge (a structure begun in 1972 and opened in 1983 after seemingly endless industrial disputes).

The planned new structure is still being investigated, but bus lanes and a possible rail link to the Auckland International Airport have been mentioned.

Approaches to the two bridges will be widened to six lanes to avoid congestion, including widening Hugh Watt Drive on the Onehunga side.

It will cost $146 million, starting in 2009-10 at the earliest, with an expected 2012-13 finish.

4. Mt Roskill extension

Construction of this 4km extension, costing $169 million, starts soon and will be finished by 2010. This addition will lead to the next stage.

5. Avondale extension

This is planned as the final link in the southwestern connection to the Northwestern Motorway, probably at Waterview, and is perhaps the most complicated part. The route is not yet designated as it is still being investigated and is subject to consultation.

The area is highly developed with housing and businesses and not many parks. The motorway project could cost $600 million to $1 billion, as it may be built below ground level and even put in a tunnel in places. Construction is due to start in 2010-11 with completion another 10 years away.

Northwestern Motorway

(Downtown Auckland to Westgate)

The Northwestern Motorway is the middle and long-established part of the western ring route. Numerous improvements are planned to help reduce congestion.

6. Port and Northern Motorway access

The Northwestern Motorway is already getting direct access to and from the Auckland Harbour Bridge and Northern Motorway as part of the $195.4 million works on Spaghetti Junction in the central city. And it has access to and from the Port of Auckland, through Grafton Gully.

The direct access to and from the Southern to the Northwestern Motorways in the central city is being improved and altered.

7. Newton Rd to Western Springs

A $6 million auxiliary lane will allow traffic from Newton more time to merge as it enters the Northwestern Motorway. Construction starts soon and finishes in 2007.

8. Southwestern to Northwestern interchange

This is still being planned, and the cost is included in the Avondale extension estimate.

9. Te Atatu interchange westbound off-ramp

A $4.8 million project to upgrade this off-ramp should begin in 2009-10 and be finished in 2011.

10. Te Atatu to Royal Rd six-laning

This $22 million project will give another lane each way as far as the Royal Rd interchange.

Due to begin in 2011-12, this work will be needed to cope with extra traffic coming from the Southwestern Motorway through Manukau, Mt Roskill and Avondale.

Upper Harbour Motorway

This new motorway will run from Westgate at the present end of the Northwestern Motorway across to the present Albany Expressway off the Northern Motorway in the east.

Projects on this new route include:

11. Hobsonville deviation

This $141 million project will start in 2005-6 and its 5km route from the Upper Harbour bridges to Westgate should take one to two years to build.

12. New Upper Harbour Bridge

A new, superior, Upper Harbour Bridge is being built alongside the existing one.

The $37 million project, to be finished by the middle of next year will have three uphill lanes with the existing bridge having two downhill lanes. Pedestrians and cyclists are being catered for.

13. Greenhithe deviation

This $94 million, 5km route will run from the Upper Harbour Bridge through to join the Albany Expressway. It is due to be completed by mid-2007.

14. Kumeu-Helensville-Wellsford (SH16)

This state highway route beyond Kumeu is now being pushed as an alternative route to State Highway 1 going north to Wellsford and Northland, especially during holiday weekends.

Upgrading is planned on this route, not least because of expected population increases around Huapai, Kumeu, Helensville and Parakai.

Some projects may be hastened by injections of funding from the new 5.6c a litre petrol tax expected to feed a regional development fund from about April.

Given recent sharp rises in petrol prices a final Government decision is still awaited.

More roads for long ride north

by Arnold Pickmere


The Northern Motorway starts at the Wellington St bridge in central Auckland, over the Auckland Harbour Bridge, north to Orewa and, within a few years, on to Puhoi.

The peak hours on the Northern, especially in the morning, offer a dramatic picture of Auckland's dilemma.

In 2003, travelling over the bridge from the Oteha Valley area near Albany took 37 minutes, against 10-12 minutes in off-peak times. Some city-bound North Shore drivers now report 45-53 minutes to get to work in the mornings.

By 6.30am on most weekdays the tail of the queue trying to get over the Harbour Bridge is back at least to the Greville Rd intersection near Albany - about 10km long.

The morning peak lasts three hours from 6.30am to 9.30am and, in the evenings, about two hours from 4.30pm, although the return journey times are far less predictable and usually shorter.

The spread in the peak appears to allow more vehicles to use the bridge, although it has been congested at peak periods for years. About 125,100 vehicles a day crossed in 1993. That figure is now 162,960, according to figures just released.

There are two main hopes for the future. First, that the alternative western ring route of motorways now being built will take pressure off the bridge.

Second, that far more people will cross the bridge by bus in future.

The northern busway and bus lanes projects aside, the Northern Motorway projects being built or planned in the next 10 years are dominated by the Orewa to Puhoi extension, bypassing Orewa.

The motorway's arrival at Puhoi instead of Orewa also raises the question of how the busy State Highway 1 will fare north of that point. It is not just a question of holiday or other traffic heading to Northland. There are at least three regional parks north of Puhoi and a host of popular beaches in the near north, many with rising populations.

Here is what is being built or planned:

St Marys Bay and Victoria Park Viaduct

There are two Harbour Bridge-to-city projects planned, involving 10 lanes through St Marys Bay and adding another four to the narrow four lanes over the present Victoria Park Viaduct.

Options are still under discussion but the one now favoured by Transit NZ involves a tunnel under Victoria Park for northbound traffic at a cost of about $200 million. Southbound traffic would continue to use the existing viaduct, with a southbound tunnel some way in the future.

This arrangement would mean three lanes each way initially, with a fourth lane option on both the tunnel and viaduct.

A southbound tunnel is more challenging because of the steep climb up to the Central Motorway Junction.

The Victoria Park work is needed to allow the flow-on benefits of work at Spaghetti Junction to be realised.

Esmonde Rd interchange upgrade

A critical point in the major northern busway scheme, this major upgrade will also help general traffic markedly.

It will allow east-west connections through the interchange between Takapuna and Northcote. It is also expected to ease pressures at the other major interchanges at Onewa Rd and Northcote Rd.

Also, two new north-facing ramps (one a northbound onramp, the other a southbound offramp) will allow Devonport traffic and vehicles from Akoranga Drive going north to use this interchange for the first time.

That means less driving through Takapuna streets to reach an alternative motorway access.

North Shore City is upgrading the local approach roads leading to the interchange. Main construction should start soon and take about two years, at a cost of $38 million.

Greville Rd northbound offramp

Greville Rd near Albany will get a $460,000 slip lane, meaning a free turn onto SH17, the Albany Expressway, near North Harbour Stadium at Albany. Due for completion 2006-07.

Wainui interchange (near Orewa)

This will cost $2.7 million, with no date set for construction.

Orewa to Puhoi proposed toll motorway

This is a major project aimed at relieving a notorious bottleneck north of Orewa.

A Government decision on whether to allow this 7.5km motorway extension to be a toll road is still pending. That could influence the completion date of the project, known officially as Alpurt B2. It is now listed for 2007-08. By last month, the estimated cost of the project had risen to $365 million from $300 million in August.

The route, which includes two tunnels, will pass through the bushclad hill between Waiwera and Puhoi.

The new route will bypass Orewa and relieve the congested, steep and winding highway between Orewa and Puhoi.

Beyond Puhoi

The Orewa-to-Puhoi stretch of motorway should mean that southbound traffic heading for central Auckland down State Highway 1 at the end of holiday weekends can get onto the new free-flowing motorway, or take the old route past Waiwera.

Also, more drivers may decide to turn off SH1 at Wellsford and approach Auckland through Helensville and the 20km western ring route stretching through West Auckland into Manukau.

But northbound traffic escaping the city will experience two lanes of traffic going into one on the state highway at Puhoi - one from the new motorway and one from the existing highway. The southbound tunnel will have two lanes.

The state highway north of Puhoi remains a goat-track in modern terms. But improvements possible in the next 10 years include:

* Hungry Creek southbound passing lane

This $1.7 million improvement north of Puhoi is already being done.

* Schedewys hill deviation

North of Puhoi and just north of the Mahurangi West turnoff, this hill climbs past the transport firm of the same name. It is a $25.8 million project based on safety.

* Windy Ridge northbound passing lane

North of Puhoi, this $610,000 passing lane is a 600m safety extension of the 300m northbound passing lane in the upper half of the Schedewys Hill section of highway.

* Sheep World southbound passing lane

About 4km north of Warkworth, this $1 million job is due to start in 2005-06.

* RDF Dome hill realignment

A $3 million project north of Warkworth. The money is mostly to increase the efficiency of that section of highway.

* Waitaraire passing lane.

In an area north of Dome Hill, the $830,000 project is intended to start in 2006-07.

* Hoteo Bridge realignment

South of Wellsford, the $2.9 million project aimsto improve route efficiency.

* Mangawhai passing lane

North of Wellsford, the $680,000 project starting in 2006-07 will take about a year.

* Don't expect a second harbour crossing any time soon

A second Waitemata Harbour crossing, whether tunnel or bridge, is not in Transit New Zealand's 10-year plan.

But in accordance with the Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy, some scoping studies are going ahead.

The idea of a crossing near the present bridge has been around for years, but a decision still looks years away.

Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard, who is keen to see more progress, concedes that a new crossing - tunnel or bridge - could be 13 to 16 years away.

There have been suggestions that a tunnel could emerge at the tank farm area near Wynyard Wharf and near the St Marys Bay Auckland Harbour Bridge approach roads and the Central Motorway Junction. But a tunnel might be suitable only for public transport.

Initial thoughts in Transit NZ suggest a traffic bridge might not be able to hook into the present motorway system because of capacity problems.

It could conceivably connect with the new Southwestern Motorway from Manukau in the south through Mt Roskill and Avondale. But don't hold your breath

Squeezing more from motorway corridors


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by Arnold Pickmere


All this week we are featuring multi-million-dollar improvements planned for Auckland's congested motorway system.

The Auckland region's road system has not kept pace with the growth of population and traffic in the last two decades.

The 30km of Southern Motorway from downtown Auckland to Papakura is now heavily congested. The morning peak starts at around 7.30 and continues until 10. The evening peak extends from 3 to 7.

The morning traffic includes the 40 per cent of all traffic said to be travelling to school and other educational facilities that abound in central Auckland.

In the evening the northbound slow-moving tail trying to get through Spaghetti Junction is often back at Ellerslie Penrose by mid-afternoon.

And evening traffic going south is often reduced to a crawl as well.

Here are some of the projects being built or planned for the Southern in the next 10 years. They reflect an effort to get more traffic capacity into a restricted corridor. And the need to update the way the motorway is handled, so more traffic flows.

Each project involves extensive consultation with local bodies, local people and others affected.

And the Government's land transport funding agency Land Transport NZ (formerly Transfund) has to agree to provide the money.

Sometimes motorway work will also mean changes to local council arterial roads.

1 and 2. Central motorway junction and Grafton Gully

The $195.4 million central motorway projects in Spaghetti Junction involve important new motorway to motorway links, including between the Northwest and Northern both ways.

Also direct motorway links to the Port of Auckland through the already completed $68 million Grafton Gully project. And there will be improved links between the Southern and Northwestern.

New, safer on-ramps and off-ramps are being installed in the central city and additional lanes allowing citybound and through motorway traffic to be kept apart. Junction project finish 2006-07.

3. Newmarket viaduct upgrade

Options still being studied. The present viaduct structure, opened in 1966, is now rated inadequate. It was also built to stand a once-in-500-year magnitude earthquake, while modern standards stipulate 2500 to 5000 years.

The present six viaduct traffic lanes need to be seven, allowing another southbound lane.

Newmarket viaduct options include a new structure alongside the present viaduct, gradually replacing the old structure - but of necessity keeping a 200,000 vehicles-a-day route through the area open while the work is done.

A new structure is expected to require further new land designation adjacent to the present viaduct. Earliest construction start 2007-08 with 2010-11 finish. Cost around $85 million.

4. Newmarket viaduct to Greenlane auxiliary lane

Aims to provide four southbound lanes to match the four southbound planned from a revamped Newmarket viaduct.

The two outer (eastern) lanes would exit into the Greenlane roundabout. The motorway sheds a lot of southbound traffic at Greenlane.

The two inner (western) lanes would be for southbound through traffic. Still under investigation. Cost $20 million, Completion target 2009-10.

5. Greenlane east interchange

A big improvement being planned with Auckland City, allowing traffic travelling on Greenlane East and West roads to go straight through the interchange, free of traffic going to motorway on-ramps. Also free turns and better merging for motorway traffic. Some bus lane improvements also planned. Construction planned 2005-06 costing about $2.4 million.

6. Ellerslie-Panmure highway interchange to Greenlane East interchange

Extend the present northbound auxiliary lane which exits at Greenlane East.

It would be lengthened southwards, all the way back to Ellerslie-Panmure interchange on-ramp. Aim is to ease peak congestion. Still under investigation. No date set.

7. Ellerslie-Panmure highway interchange

Southbound offramp from motorway to get a left turn slip lane which motorway traffic can use without giving way. Safety change from present give way arrangement which has restricted vision. Cost $170,000. Finished by end 2005.

8. Southeastern highway to Ellerslie, northbound auxiliary lane*

Needed to ease congestion at this peak hour bottleneck created where the newish Southeastern arterial road has a short merge with northbound Southern Motorway traffic. Will allow a much more gradual merge and should help traffic wishing to exit at Ellerslie. Cost $8.2 million. No date set.

9. Mt Wellington off-ramp

This off-ramp northbound is to get a left-turn slip lane costing $2.2 million aimed at easing congestion. Construction aim 2006-07.

10. Mt Wellington interchange bypass*

This is a $100,000 bus priority lane. The busy Mt Wellington interchange is close to the very big retail and apartment development planned at Sylvia Park.

Improvements to the local road network including the Mt Wellington Highway are planned by Auckland City and expected to cope with the extra traffic. The development is also right by a rail station due for upgrading in 2007-08.

11. Otahuhu to Waiouru four-laning

As part of the work installing the new Waiouru interchange the Southern Motorway will get a fourth lane each way - from Princes St, Otahuhu, southbound to the new interchange north of Bairds Rd. And northbound from the Waiouru link to the Water St, Otahuhu, off-ramp.

12. Waiouru connection interchange

A $20 million project just starting with completion 2007-08. Part of a Transfund assisted $66 million joint Transit NZ-Manukau City project. It will connect the Waiouru Peninsula (including a new business park) with the Southern Motorway just north of the Bairds Rd bridge over the motorway.

13. Hill Rd Manurewa to Takanini three-laning*

Extra southbound lane, giving three traffic lanes to match the three northbound already done. Cost $6.7 million. No date.

14. Takanini interchange upgrade*

Expected cost $3 million. An old interchange, originally serving largely country area. At present has very short merge with northbound traffic. No date.

15. Takanini to Papakura six-laning*

Widened from two to three lanes each way. Cost $7.4 million. No date.

16. Papakura interchange upgrade*

Cost $10.3 million. No date. Interchange now getting heavier use through growth in Papakura-Franklin area.

* Projects marked * could be built sooner than otherwise expected through injections of extra cash from the new 5.6c-a-litre petrol tax and road-user charges for light diesel vehicles expected.

This tax is expected to feed about $207 million a year into a Regional Development Fund from about April.

Given recent sharp rises in oil prices a final Government decision is still awaited. The intention is to allocate money to regions from this source on a population basis, which would give the Auckland region about 35 per cent or about $72 million.

What are the plans to cope with the traffic jams?


17.01.05


MOTORWAYS

Motorway arteries

Two motorway arteries will go through the Auckland isthmus. The Western Ring Route from Manukau to Albany will complement State Highway 1's congested route through central Auckland and the harbour bridge.

The dozens of projects and maintenance planned for state highways (including the Southern, Northern, Northwestern, Southwestern and Upper Harbour motorways) in the next 10 years will cost around $3.2 billion.

Transit New Zealand's Auckland regional manager (acting) Richard Hancy says that in peak traffic a small improvement in the motorway system, or a drop in traffic through more bus or train travel, can make a big difference.

But traffic planners also acknowledge Auckland is a diverse region. Many people travelling to work or elsewhere have to take routes which defy convenient public transport services.

Despite Auckland's spread nature and diverse destinations for workers, the notion traffic congestion can be beaten just by building more roads is a rapidly fading dream. Planners do accept, though, that the region and commercial transport needs a proper road network to function efficiently.

Traffic management

Completion of the planned Auckland motorway system will be accompanied by far more emphasis on sophisticated traffic management. That includes $90 million in the 10-year state highway budget for Advanced Travel Management Systems across Auckland motorway and arterial roads, monitoring and adjusting traffic flows through closed circuit cameras. And Travel Demand Management systems on the main motorways will aim at getting increased traffic flows by keeping motorways and main arteries flowing with a minimum of hold-ups.

Eastern corridor

In the context of Transit NZ's 10-year State Highway Plan to 2013-14 the much hyped (but now shelved) Eastern transport corridor is still, at this stage, classed only as a local roading project. It is not in the plan.

Although the road route across Hobson Bay may not eventuate, other parts of the route may still be necessary, especially in Manukau City where half the planned route lies.


BUSES
There are plans to greatly expand busways, bus lanes and other measures to ease rush-hour pressures.

New motorway projects are being planned with room for future bus lanes, and cycleways and walkways where appropriate.


TRAINS

Station upgrades, modern trains and reliable trackways are all on the way - to be followed, everyone hopes, by reliable service. Rail should offer chances for more people to use the southern and northwestern corridors. Increasing numbers of commuters as far south as Pukekohe and Papakura are already using trains as a way of avoiding motorways.


PLANNING
Plans for motorways, bus lane schemes and everything from rail services, ferries, walkways and cycleways are part of Auckland's Regional Land Transport Strategy. This strategy complements the Auckland Regional Growth Strategy up to 2050 - how and where the increase in population may be fitted into the region. Planning involves the Auckland Regional Council and its new subsidiary, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, plus the region's four city and two district councils, Transit NZ, Transfund and many other interests and agencies

Is there any plan for a train link to the North Shore?

No there isn't at this stage, costs would be too high i'd say. That is why they are building the North Shore Busway, which will be similar to a light rail system in terms of frequency and speed, etc, but not as expensive.
Besides, North Shore's spread and hilly nature means that buses are better suited anyway.

True, and it would be costly for a connection if they used the Harbour Bridge or the new harbour crossing.

Yeah trains wouldn't work on the north shore. They shore buses aren't too bad.

Busway project is the best for the moment.

I drove through Spaghetti Junction yesturday and saw this new ramp they are building. It looks good.

Better buses and rail the answer
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21.01.05 Part 5 in a series
by Arnold Pickmere


This is the final in a five-part series examining the multimillion-dollar improvements to Auckland's motorways.

It is a fair bet that nine out of 10 Aucklanders hardly ever use public transport - bus, rail or ferry. Many may not have have caught a bus since their schooldays.

And rail is just emerging from the days when only masochists caught the train - they enjoyed wondering whether it would arrive late or at all.

How much do we rely on motor vehicles?

So much that there is about one car for every two people in the Auckland region. If that trend continues - and nobody has said it will not - there will be a lot more cars in 2021. By then experts expect the region's population to be about 1.65 million instead of the present 1.3 million.

What will 350,000 more people mean?

That Auckland is edging towards a crunch point. There will be room for only so many cars in peak hours. Traffic on the motorways and arterial roads will be managed so it does not gridlock. You may have to queue to get on a motorway.

Planners now recognise that building more and more motorways beyond the present planned system is not a solution. And, conversely, that many in diverse, spread-out Auckland will continue to rely on cars. But there will have to be much better public transport.

What can we hope for from public transport?

Watch for a revolution in bus travel and a gradual but continuing improvement in train and ferry services. Watch particularly for signs public transport is becoming more user friendly - reliable, on time, co-ordinated and offering secure park-and-ride facilities and good security at bus and rail stations.

There were seven rail stations receiving some attention late last year, part of 11 using a $25.5 million grant from Infrastructure Auckland. The goal is 20 million rail passengers a year by 2015.

Is the use of public transport increasing now?

Yes. In a new report, the Auckland Regional Council says, for example, that public transport use increased 10.2 per cent between 1996 and 2001 (the last census date). Sound great? Actually, it isn't good enough.

The number of public transport trips as a proportion of total trips to work was 6.8 per cent in 1996 and almost identical at 7 per cent in 2001. But the population increase meant an extra 25,000 cars being driven to work in 2001. Population increases as high as 40,000 a year in each of the past couple of years emphasise the problem.

Is public transport use spread evenly about the region?

No. Only about 7 per cent of trips to work by Aucklanders involve public transport. The Central Business District does best. The Auckland City Council says about 73,000 people enter the CBD from 7am to 9am each weekday. About 44,000 (60 per cent) come by car, with 27,000 (37 per cent) using public transport (mostly buses but also trains or ferries). About 2000 walk or cycle.

The CBD has the biggest pool of jobs in the region - about 65,000. But the inner city is now reckoned by the Auckland Regional Council to account for only 12 to 13 per cent of the region's jobs.

What are some reasons you might catch a peak-hour bus, or train or ferry in future?
1. You might get to work at least as fast as sitting in queues of traffic. Priority bus lanes and especially the $290 million Northern Busway to the harbour bridge in particular will help the flow of public transport.

2. The Northern Busway and the Auckland rail routes will not be affected by traffic. With peak-hour road travel times lengthening, they should have a real advantage in future. This can already be seen in the increasing numbers using trains to avoid the Southern Motorway. Even with minimal improvements in the week service, a survey last March found 16,000 people using the trains each weekday, up from 12,000 the year before.

3. You might arrive at work feeling calm and having read the paper.

And some reasons you might not catch the bus, train or ferry?

1. There may not be public transport that connects easily between home and work. Planners talk of housing more people near arterial roads and count how many live within a kilometre of a railway line. But most people choose a job they want, whether it's near home, or handy to public transport or not.

2. You might have to use vehicle for your work.

3. Public transport might not suit other commitments, like picking up a child from school or daycare. Planners recognise the issues are complicated. They say a range of improvements from better bus services to minor things like walkways, cycleways and even school "walking buses" can all reduce traffic congestion.

Driving children and students to school or educational institutes, for example, is estimated to account for up to 40 per cent of Auckland's morning peak traffic.

What is being done to make buses more attractive?

Projects are already in place, many not very visible because they are so widely scattered. An Auckland Regional Council report to 2003 lists more than 130 being acted on across the Auckland isthmus. They vary from bus lanes (reserved at certain hours for buses or cars with more than two occupants), to all sorts of other minor improvements.

There are also a dozen specific projects relating to bus priority lanes in Transit NZ's 10-year plans for Auckland motorways, seven of them on the Northwestern. Also, new motorways now being built (Southwestern and Upper Harbour) have provision for future busways.

Along bus lanes will flow modern buses avoiding some of the worst congestion. Since 1995 Auckland bus operators have invested $132 million in 617 new buses, including 314 super-low-floor accessible buses. A further 295 buses costing $90 million are planned before December 2006.

What is new about the bus plans?

Bus lanes are being planned in a cohesive pattern. Easily the best illustration is the plans for the 7.3km, two-way Northern Busway. The busway itself, the first in the country, will have two 80km/h lanes alongside the Northern Motorway connecting five North Shore City bus stations to be built along the motorway.

But this busway spine is only part of the scheme by Transit NZ, North Shore, Auckland City and the Auckland Regional Council with its new Auckland Regional Transport Authority subsidiary.

The key will be the bus priority lanes (see map) coming to the North Shore roading network in the next few years. A web of new bus stations, east-west bus services, loop services in local catchments near the busway, express buses and the like will improve services on the North Shore and between there, Rodney and Auckland City.

Auckland City also plans a series of bus priority lanes starting along Fanshawe St, leading to parts of the central city, improving city access for North Shore commuters.

There is a $14.9 million project for Fanshawe St. It will be widened and dedicated two-way, 24-hour bus lanes added. When the Northern Busway is finished, 120 buses an hour are expected to use the Fanshawe lanes in the morning peak.

Why catch a bus under the new system?

The service is intended to be frequent and reliable. In peak hours a bus should pass near your home every 15 minutes.

The first new bus stations on the Northern Motorway will be at Albany and along the busway at Constellation late this year. Sunnynook, Westlake and Akoranga will follow in late 2007. The stations will cater for those arriving by bus, on foot or cycle or those dropped off by a car. Farther back from Albany towards Orewa, buses will mingle with traffic in the meantime.

The busway stations will have "real time" information telling you when the next bus will arrive. Closed circuit cameras will provide security. Transit NZ's project director, Clive Fuhr, even talks of developments such as self-scanning tickets to speed passengers on to buses.

What advantages will the Northern Busway offer?

Transit calculates that on a typical day the priority measures on local North Shore streets and busway travel at 80km/h, irrespective of motorway conditions, may give a traveller from Browns Bay an advantage of five to 15 minutes over motorway traffic. In rain or heavy congestion the advantages of busway travel could be greater.

They suggest another advantage for commuters is that busway trips should take about the same time each day. Car drivers in the morning Northern Motorway peak (6.30am to 9.30am) now have travel times which can vary widely from day to day.

How much will we be bossed around over using public transport?

Wait and see. There are some very fine balances in play. Bus lanes, for example, still need to be designed and run to minimally disrupt other vital heavy transport.

The best answer about whether more people will catch buses, trains and ferries in future may lie in these two ferry questions.

Why do Waiheke Islander commuters catch ferries? Answer: Not many cars float. Why do numbers of Devonport commuters catch the ferry to work? Answer: To avoid the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Building more motorways is not the solution.........?

No, not really. Although Auckland has dug itslef into a hole with this- so motorways might be the only thing that works for the most people in the mid-outer suburbs.

Sorry dude,I was actually being scarcastic

The motorway, Albany-Puhoi is to damn slow at construction.

Sorry dude,I was actually being scarcasticOh ok, well, never mind, lol.

Any news on that LRT that was planned for Queen St.?

The motorway, Albany-Puhoi is to damn slow at construction.

Maybe you should go see transit and volunteer you seem to have alot of spare time, you can drive the steam roller!.... no hang on, thats no good too damn slow!

Installing safety barriers.

Installing safety barriers.

How is that relevant to the previous post? lol

Well, a poor comeback, does anyone have any idea what is happening over there at the moment though?

Well, a poor comeback, does anyone have any idea what is happening over there at the moment though?

Basic works have begun and funding is coming through in stages. The project should be completed by 2008.

The original completion date was 2003. But because of cases in the enviromental court the Puhoi extention was delayed. Modifications to the design helped get the project running again but at a much higher cost. Hence the toll proposal.

Basic works have begun and funding is coming through in stages. The project should be completed by 2008.

The original completion date was 2003. But because of cases in the enviromental court the Puhoi extention was delayed. Modifications to the design helped get the project running again but at a much higher cost. Hence the toll proposal.

I'm pretty sure that part of the modified design includes a tunnelled section through a sensitive environmental area near Waiwera.

They could tunnel under the hotpools, and add in a few more water slides while they're at it lol

Have u heard about that new $200 million+ redevelopment of Waiwera Tom? im sure they will add a few more waterslides with that one. But anyway, it will be good for Orewa that this project is going ahead- one of the few major motorway projects that i approve of, lol

Basic works have begun and funding is coming through in stages. The project should be completed by 2008.

The original completion date was 2003. But because of cases in the enviromental court the Puhoi extention was delayed. Modifications to the design helped get the project running again but at a much higher cost. Hence the toll proposal.
Thanks.

I'm pretty sure that part of the modified design includes a tunnelled section through a sensitive environmental area near Waiwera.

Yes, I forgot the name (Wenderholm or something), the whole area is a protected park, native bush and everything.

Yeah the 250 metre tunnel is a good idea, better than slicing through hills and ruining more of our bush. This will also mean that the viaduct across the Waiwera valley entering the tunnels will be lower.

Transit now have to bridge the 22 streams along the route instead of just bulldozing over them which they originally planned on doing!

What I don't understand is why the government still hasn't officially backed this new road, if they built it when originally planned it would have cost 4 times less than the current 365m price tag.

However, I like the way transit is going about it and just building the damn thing anyway.

They've got the money anyway.

Hey!!

I have been reading your post for months now i have finnaly joined!

If you want some really interesting transport information go to:

www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz (http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz)

I created it by the way.

Hey!!

I have been reading your post for months now i have finnaly joined!

If you want some really interesting transport information go to:

www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz (http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz)

I created it by the way.

Welcome AUCKLANDMAN!
We've been running this thread manly on Transit images up till now.
Great to see your website. Fabulous.

Nice to see pics of the completed Kyber Pass-Gillies Ave section.
Also good to see the change in marking style. Untill a short time ago they would have marked the exiting and split lanes with the standard lane marking. much clearer now.
http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/DSCN2053.JPG
I dont agree with signposting the left lane as exiting at market road. Should be signposted as a straight ahead lane with a sign on the side of it idicating the exit ahead. Causes confusion.

I would like to see the Sthern Mwy built to a standard 4-4 with 5th (and possibly a 6th in places) auxilary lanes to Manukau. I also think a motorway through Penose linking the Sthern and S.Western would be essential to create a Westren ring and airport link.

As for the Waitemata crossing, I would go with this proposal as it is the only one that would relieve the Sthern motorway and truely make the Western Ring an equal route in terms of north-south traffic movement.
http://transit.govt.nz/shmd_projects/content_files/Project143_ImageFile2.jpg

Transits prefered option just throws the traffic onto the existing infrastructure ie: the CBD and Sthern Mwy.
http://transit.govt.nz/shmd_projects/content_files/Project143_ImageFile1.jpg

Personally I dont think Transits prefered option is a good long term solution.

Welcome Aucklandman! Great website too. :cheers1:

News on the new CBD Ferry terminal..

New look for terminal a step nearer
From City Scene, published on 6 February, 2005
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/news/council/200502/6/images/a01.jpg

Travel safely - Passengers are urged to take care as the downtown ferry's Pier 1 upgrade enters vital stage.

The $10.5m Downtown Ferry Terminal stage one upgrade started in 2003 is nearing completion.

During the next two weeks services at the terminal will begin moving back to the revitalised Pier 1.

Starting this Wednesday, 9 February, public drop-off and pick-up areas, taxi ranks and motorcycle and bicycle parking will all move permanently from Pier 2 across to new terminal areas on Pier 1.

Ferry passengers are being asked to take extra care and leave a little more time than usual to catch their ferry, says Simon Laird, transport and operations executive for the Auckland Regional Transport Network Limited, which is managing the extensive upgrade.

"Pedestrian safety is paramount throughout the upgrade," says Mr Laird. "We have introduced taxi ranks on the pier rather than outside on Quay Street, and a much wider turning area for pick-up and drop-off."

New pick-up and drop-off locations around the terminal area will be clearly signposted, as Pier 2 closes to allow stage two of the terminal upgrade to begin.

There will be no public parking on the wharves so people should use nearby parking buildings like the Downtown Car Park or allow themselves time to find alternative parking.

The nearly completed Pier 1 upgrade will bring about some other exciting additions. A covered area incorporating seated waiting areas, public toilets, a ticket kiosk, a licensed cafe (which is opening late February), vending machines and baggage lockers will all help to make people's ferry experience comfortable.

The new Pier 2 terminal building is expected to be completed by June this year and will include the same amenities.

A glass walkway connecting the newly restored Queen's Wharf historic pathway to Quay Street is also due for completion.

Auckland Regional Transport Network Limited is managing the project with Auckland City as the majority shareholder.

Auckland- Upper Harbour Highway
http://www.opus.co.nz/upperharbourmotorway/images/uphbrmap.jpg

What is going to happen with the S.H 1 (Northern Motorway) and the S.H 18 intersection when the rest of the Upper Hbr Hwy is upgraded to a motorway?

Nothing will happen with that, it will stay the same as it is at the moment. However it may get an upgrade to handle more traffic.

Upper Harbour highway bridge is getting an upgrade, as can be seen in the picture.

Yeah that's well under way. How's los santos at this time of year?

WHAT?!!! You're joking right?
http://69.56.199.198/gtaserwisimg/gfx/news/los_santos_map.jpg
http://i.boomtown.net/pics/3/9/8/57893/292x219.jpg
http://i.boomtown.net/pics/2/9/8/57892/292x219.jpg
http://i.boomtown.net/pics/5/9/8/57895/292x219.jpg
http://i.boomtown.net/pics/9/8/8/57889/292x219.jpg

No I wasn't joking, but I'm glad you updated me with those pictures. Looks as though the freeway development was completed since I was last there, when it was still under construction.

lol Tom

No I wasn't joking, but I'm glad you updated me with those pictures. Looks as though the freeway development was completed since I was last there, when it was still under construction.
Yes, few more skyscrapers have popped up too. :D

Looks like there's a new salad bowl I didn't know about/

:lol: Look at some of the place names. :D

Do you think that the victoria viaduct project will be done shortly after the CMJ project is complete along with the Newmarket Viaduct widening??

aucklandman! Welcome to the forums. Here's your welcoming milo and a pickle sandwich :)

Welcome to SSC aucklandman! :cheers1:

aucklandman! Welcome to the forums. Here's your welcoming milo and a pickle sandwich :)

Yuk :puke:!!

Lol you can exchange it for a toffee pop if you really want to

Do you think that the victoria viaduct project will be done shortly after the CMJ project is complete along with the Newmarket Viaduct widening??

According to Transits 10 year plan work on the Harbour Bridge to City section (including the Vic Park viaduct) should commence in 2009 or 2010.

lol milo and pickle sandwich. i think i will exchange it for a toffee pop. lol

Isn't the Vic Park Viaduct, a viaduct no longer, i'm certain i heard Transit were going to underground the flyover in stages anyway.

Isn't the Vic Park Viaduct, a viaduct no longer, i'm certain i heard Transit were going to underground the flyover in stages anyway.

Indeed. Transit seems to be commiting more and more to a tunnel option with a $200 million price tag. The proposal is for a 3-3 tunnel with room for a 4th lane in each direction in accordence with their harbour tunnel preference.

Was the previous proposal only for boats or something?

Click Here (http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/North%20Wide.htm) to show all the major options and the most preffered. I think that the last option with the tunnel and existing bridge is best.

Aha! That pic shows something I once saw in another old pic, and that is those two circular drums - what were they?

That's a great site there. But heck I hate that idea that involves taking down the existing fly-over.

http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/VV%20Partial%20Tunnel.jpg

This is what makes it so easy with the above option.
The bridge demolisions making way for things sound so disruptive.

However the bridge has concrete cancer so will have to be fixed and retrofitted.

The old pic is sort of a crazy photo the gas works is the one close to the bridge but im not sure what the drums are for maybe water or sumthing.

Thanks for the compliments on mi site!!! :)

This viaduct was completed in the 1960s right?

Yep, thats why its so cheap, ugly, unsafe and uneasily upgradable. Completed in april 1962.

Thought you might find this Article of interest !http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/AK0502/S00103.htm :)

Ah very good! Now thats transport news i like to hear Marky Mark! lol. Good to see that the Auckland City Council is promoting cycling during bike wise week. Here at my summer job at the City Council in Napier, im trying to get my fellow colleagues to join me in biking to work next week- so we'll see how that goes anyway.

Yep, thats why its so cheap, ugly, unsafe and uneasily upgradable. Completed in april 1962.
There was an accident there a few years ago, a car hit and went through the barrier and crashed to Victoria Park below, both two people in the car died.

Once we were driving across there and a rugby ball from Victoria Park had been kicked up onto the overpass. It went over the car in front of us, under our car, over the car behind us etc. It was flying around everywhere, quite dangerous.

Makes Victoria Park look ugly with the overpass, I prefer the sunken motorway project, if not then I'd choose the full tunnel, I say demolish the overpass.

http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/VV%20Sunken%20Option.jpg
http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/VV%20Tunnel.jpg

The sunken motorway would take up more space (as you cant go under like a bridge) the tunnel is by far the best option but for the cost vs usefullness the tunnel and existing bridge for on/off ramps for cook st and sh16 makes that idea smart because there would be no tight merging and things like that.

The sunken motorway might get more rugby balls than the bridge! :) lol

might get some stray skateboards flying into aswell from that skatepark

Drunks walking home from town could also dare each other to walk the beams lol

lol tru

I think maybe the complete tunneling option would be best, its quite common in Sydney to have parts of the m'way go underground, so why not here? It would be cool to drive through anyway.

I think maybe the complete tunneling option would be best, its quite common in Sydney to have parts of the m'way go underground, so why not here? It would be cool to drive through anyway.

Agreed. Total cut and cover.

http://www.manukau.govt.nz/IMAGES/aerial3.jpg

Wow! Where did you get that??

Ah interesting, for the New Business Park isn't it?

He made it.

He made it.
:)

Wow! Where did you get that??

From the Manukau City site.

http://www.easttamakiconnection.co.nz/index.html

Ah interesting, for the New Business Park isn't it?

Its for the growing East Tamaki/ Botany area which is expected to double in size by 2020.

I dont understand why they dont put a rail line extension out to Botany- it desperately needs something like that. Very annoying transport planning going on at Manukau City Council, very car-oriented planning.

I dont understand why they dont put a rail line extension out to Botany- it desperately needs something like that. Very annoying transport planning going on at Manukau City Council, very car-oriented planning.

Again quite poor planning by the Manukau CC the area doesnt seem to have any plans for public transport. With the ammount of places developing out there why dont they put in a train system linking up with the main trunk, thru manukau and out the the airport.

It seems that the ARC doesnt do much to help.

A train from the Airport to the city would be awesome.

When only at the moment we have that Airbus Transport Company going from the city to the airport.

I agree, poor planning, the ARC should be doing alot more for rail- its all very well upgrading stations and trains, but what is really needed are line extensions so that the new trains can get to more people!

link to render of the same interchange that Kiwikass posted about
http://www.highbrook.co.nz/location.asp?s2=interchange&s3=3d+image

That road is shown as being proposed on an older map that I own.

http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/DSCN2229.JPG

Showing the new hobson/nelson st on-ramp lane. Crazy pic!

Great pic Aucklandman. One of my favourite spots.
You can also see clearly the widening work on the northbound lanes from hobson St. In a couple of years we will see the pictured section of the NW Mwy becoming one way with the nthern-NW-Grafton connection. I presume the citybound NW lanes will be in the now vacant area under the Nthbound lanes.

That pic is way too big

I dont understand why they dont put a rail line extension out to Botany- it desperately needs something like that. Very annoying transport planning going on at Manukau City Council, very car-oriented planning.

I agree with you to a point.
I dont think this conncetion is wrong at all. It connects a growing industrial area with the main north-south artery. Its not a mega road connection (quite modest really). On a commuter basis then a lightrail or train line (to Botany) would be good ultimately.

Yea i know sorry flyin higher i wont do that again. :)

Yes it will look cool when the CMJ plans are complete.
http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/aerial.jpg
From That To....
http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/CMJ.jpg

No worries aucklandman

I agree with you to a point.
I dont think this conncetion is wrong at all. It connects a growing industrial area with the main north-south artery. Its not a mega road connection (quite modest really). On a commuter basis then a lightrail or train line (to Botany) would be good ultimately.

No I know, i think this motorway connection is needed (mainly for industry), but I just think that a rail line going out to Botany should also be in the planning along with any new motorway connections. At the moment the closest rail station to the entire Eastern Auckland urban area(Howick/Pakuranga/Beachlands/Maraetai/Botany) is Panmure. This part of Auckland shouldn't really be a part of Manukau City anyway, they have little in common. It should form its own City Council.

I agree with you. There is only really drastic roading projects (which i agree with) but no majour public transport projects (which i dont agree with) they need to make more tracks in obvious places.

No worries aucklandman



No I know, i think this motorway connection is needed (mainly for industry), but I just think that a rail line going out to Botany should also be in the planning along with any new motorway connections. At the moment the closest rail station to the entire Eastern Auckland urban area(Howick/Pakuranga/Beachlands/Maraetai/Botany) is Panmure. This part of Auckland shouldn't really be a part of Manukau City anyway, they have little in common. It should form its own City Council.

You could also see this road connection in a possitive light.
It would free up Te Rakau Drive from freight traffic from East Tamaki and provide scope for light rail lines.
For the eastern suburbs I wouldnt go for heavy rail (way too limited in its potential routes). I would go for a ''supertram'' loop. Build a 3rd line on the eastern main truck railway for goods trains from the port and use the other 2 lines for the super trams. These super trams can carry around the same number of passengers as the existing heavy trains used in Auckland. The difference is that they can also operate as trams on road networks. For example. Britomart-Panmure via the eastern corridor, Panmure-Pakuranga, then a loop via Pakuranga Rd to Howick-Botany and back to Pakuranga via Te Rakau Drive. The beauty of this option as that you get a high capacity rail link out east with the maximum reach.

http://mapserver.wises.co.nz/B605.png

http://www.bezuidenhout.nl/assets/images/Nieuwe_RandstadRailmateriaal.jpghttp://www.denhaag.nl/pics/dso/randstadrail/trein.gif

This option would also work ultimately for the North shore as these vehicles could also use the Busway alignment.

Excellent Ideas, but probably wont happen :(

Well I don't mind if its light or heavy, though I think the ARC has favoured heavy rail for all of Auckland, as long as something gets done.

Well I don't mind if its light or heavy, though I think the ARC has favoured heavy rail for all of Auckland, as long as something gets done.

I think its pretty obvious that heavy rail WONT be an option. It would mean having to build an underground line which will never get funding.
I think the lightrail / supertram option would work beter. The whole concept is much more suited to the Eastern suburbs topography.
Ther ARC has favoured heavy rail on the existing lines. That still cancels out the eastern suburbs.
I don't want to appear rude but you (flyin) arent excactly rich with ideas apart from nonspecific cycling solutions which are very impractical for Auckland.

@aucklandman. Just chewing the breeze here. I wouldnt cancel anything out just yet. The transport development of the Auckland region is going to be one of evolution with many proposals in the coming years. What eventually comes to fruition we will have to wait and see.

There's no point in listing what I would like to happen, because it couldn't ever be done in Auckland, and most of your ideas are great anyway. The city is chained to car dependency.

It's the people. They think just because they live in a metro area that they can commute every day to different cities for work, uni, school and shopping.

Its amazing how things can date like that. Maybe when they eventually replace them they can put up clip-ons that are a bit wider so that a pathway can be incorporated, leaving the rail runction to the next harbour crossing, like KIWIKAAS said.

Potentially you could thin down the lanes on the clip-ons. At the moment they are about 7.7 metres wide (2 x 3.6m lanes + 50m on the side). You could make the lanes 3.5 (voor busses + heavy vehicles) & 3m (just for light vehicles / cars) and remove the extra 50m roadway. That leaves 1.2 metres for something else such as a bikeway. Becouse a bikeway is structually very light (compared with a roadway) you could add another 70cm-1m to the structure at minimum cost. That would make a bike/pedestrian way of 1.9-2.2 metres bredth. Thats too skinny for cycles and pedestrians so you could make 1 for bikes only and another for pedestrians only.
The viability of the project could be increased with the developments at Freemans Bay and Westhaven.

I'll copy this post onto the Auckland Transport thread.

That has already been investigated but they were going to put it underneath the bridge but the bridge has too much weight on it according to transit.

That has already been investigated but they were going to put it underneath the bridge but the bridge has too much weight on it according to transit.

Slinging something underneath would indeed make it too heavy.
My idea just uses the existing structure. You could make it 1.2 metres wide till 2020 and then when the clip-ons are rebuilt make the cycle/foot ways the full 2.5 metres.

That sounds like a reasonable idea. Hopefully, after the cyclists organisation CAN put in a submission to the govt about it, Transit might finally get on with looking at the options.

Mayors join drive to boost cycling

NZ Herald
16.02.05
by Mathew Dearnaley


Mayors of two Auckland cities will be among hundreds of cyclists at "Bike to Work" breakfasts today to boost the region's ranks of non-petrol commuters.

But they face an uphill battle trying to coax more Aucklanders out of their cars. Fewer than 5000 commuters cycled to work on the day of the 2001 Census - less than 1 per cent of Aucklanders with jobs.

They had thinned from about 6000 since 1996, when the proportion of cycling commuters stood at 1.2 per cent, even then just half the national average.

But organisers of Auckland City's annual bike breakfast hope to draw at least 500 peckish pedallers, including Mayor Dick Hubbard and council transport and urban linkages committee chairman Richard Simpson, to this morning's festivities in Aotea Square.

North Shore Mayor George Wood intends joining one of three convoys of cyclists in Takapuna.

Police escorts will be a rare luxury for the North Shore cyclists.

An average of 300 cyclists a year were admitted to Auckland hospitals in the decade to 1997, according to a regional council strategy document, and their vulnerability is a big obstacle to efforts by planners to boost their ranks.

Local authorities are spending increasing sums on making them safer, whether by squeezing cycle lanes on to existing roads or building dedicated cycleways.

Auckland City has only about 20km of off-road cycleways, mainly beside the Northwestern Motorway and Tamaki Drive.

But tender documents are being prepared for the first stage of a 12km cycleway from Southdown to Mt Roskill, which will be built for $3 million over three years in tandem with the motorway extension of State Highway 20 from Hillsborough Rd to Maioro St.

Planners are also looking at putting cycleways along rail corridors, including the southern line from Newmarket and the western from Mt Albert to Waitakere. That corridor is believed to be too narrow to accommodate cyclists east of Mt Albert.

Although the city council has withdrawn support for an eastern highway to Glen Innes and Manukau, Hobson Community Board chairman Dr David Simpson is pushing for a cycleway along the first part of the route and then to Pt England.

Manukau and Waitakere cities are also on the brink of ambitious cycleway developments, having won more than $9 million in grants from the now-defunct Infrastructure Auckland.
A big missing link for pedallers is the harbour bridge, on which they accuse Transit NZ of dragging the chain over a study the Government has ordered on the feasibility of building a shared cycleway and walkway.

Transport Minister Pete Hodgson called for the study in July after 5813 people petitioned the Government, but he now says it will take about four more months for Transit to complete a structural analysis of the 46-year-old bridge.

yay :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: ROFL nah thats cool i just thort those banana things were funny

Thats alot of happy bananas! lol

Yeah,those bananas could boost NZ's GDP by 20%.

lol

lol

Haha then Helen Clark wouldn't have to encourage mothers of small children to enter the work force.

Is Helen Clark doing that now?

not really. No need to worry

Record numbers biked to breakfast
Wednesday, 16 February 2005, 3:32 pm
Press Release: Auckland City Council

16 February 2005
Record numbers biked to breakfast

Mayor Dick Hubbard joined an estimated 500 keen cyclists this morning for breakfast in Aotea Square for Auckland City’s annual Bike to Work Breakfast.

The mayor and Councillor Richard Simpson, Transport and Urban Linkages Committee chairperson, cycled into the CBD sporting the slogan ‘one less car’ on the back of their eye-catching red t-shirts.

In his speech this morning, Mr Hubbard encouraged all Aucklanders to get out of their cars and on a bike as a fun, healthy alternative way to travel.

“This year’s event attracted almost double last year’s number of participants and shows there are people keen to use their bikes to travel.

“As we continue our commitment to improve and develop cycling facilities in Auckland city, we hope to encourage more people out of their cars. We’re not saying Aucklanders shouldn’t use their cars at all, but think about cycling as a realistic travel option,” says Mr Hubbard.

One participant cycled 20 kilometres from Hobsonville and another had been coming to the event every year since it began in 1998.

Two mountain bikes were given away and several people won spot prizes. Live music played and bike stunts were performed in front of the crowd.

For more information on the Bike to Work Breakfast 2005 see www.aucklandcity.govt.nz.

Auckland City’s Bike to Work Breakfast is an annual event in support of National Bikewise Week.

Thats cool. Why cant they make it bike year ir sumthing and get everyone to bike to work. No more jams (unless you get ur pants caught in the chain) no more pollution and no more fattys.

Thats exactly right aucklandman. Why can't they build motorways for bikes, or 'Bikeways', in the same set up as motorways are built for high speed bike travel. It would be interesting to look at.

It would only be high speed bike travel if people were forced to peddle harder lol. And lets just hope no ones pants get caught in the chain hahahaha

Well some people might want to pedal faster than others, and small things like surface treatment, etc, actually help higher speeds, i know this for a fact.

In other transport related news...

Source: www.scoop.co.nz
Activists Appear Naked At Court
Thursday, 17 February 2005, 3:56 pm
Press Release: Naked Bike Ride

Thu, 17 Feb 2005

Climate Change And Transport Activists Appear Naked At Court
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0502/3cdb8b4d4b7431205f8d.jpeg

Climate justice campaigner Simon Oosterman today pleaded not guilty to a charge of ‘indecent exposure’ for failing to cover-up at the Auckland World Naked Bike Ride last Sunday.

Simon Oosterman and three other climate and transport activists appeared in front of the central district court naked and wrapped in a banner that read “STOP indecent exposure to vehicle emissions”. Simon then entered the courthouse naked, but wore clothes to the plea hearing.

“What is completely inappropriate is that as the Kyoto protocol comes into effect, a public body is charging an individual for creatively highlighting the very issues the protocol seeks to change” said Simon.

“The Auckland World Naked Bike Ride’s purpose was to draw attention to oil dependency and the negative social and environmental impacts of a car dominated culture. Last year 250 Aucklanders were killed by vehicle emissions, and 94 people died in car accidents on the roads of Auckland alone” he said.

“Transport is a major contributor to our national increase in greenhouse emissions. 40% of New Zealand’s CO2 emissions are transport related, with private car use being the main cause. The number of cars registered each year has tripled since 1960” said Mr Oosterman. (1))

“For 20 years we have been waiting for international agreements on greenhouse emission reductions. The Kyoto protocol only requires a 5.5% reduction of emissions below 1990 levels. However, the scientific community has called for global reductions of over 60% below 1990 levels just to stabilise the climate system. An international group of scientists recently warned that we have only ten years to make rapid changes and avert accelerated weather chaos” he said. (2)
“The failure of government and businesses to adequately respond to reduce emissions highlights that the responsibility and initiative lies with the public. We should be encouraging, not penalising, individuals who choose to highlight the available solutions to climate change especially in a fun and creative manner” he said.

Other supporters at the protest today remained fully clothed. The reaction from passers by was positive and encouraging, and no complaints or further charges were forthcoming.

The next court date has been set for Monday, March 21 at the Central District Court, Auckland

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid159/pe5a7e65732da5d054b613e569bb87156/f505144a.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid159/pade95d158bb991671e88779f255fafbb/f505117e.jpg

Interchange at Otahuhu/ Otara
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid159/p3e1dbfbc3e48f86115e88f9fa978519f/f50510d5.jpg

I like that tram route you have there! Definitely the perfect route for Howick/Pakuranga, going past all the major areas that people would want to go to. Now we just need the council's approval;)

I had to drive to Hamilton today,just got back,the traffic really is a joke these days........but it looks as though they are finally ready to start sealing the road down around Mercer.

Yeah it is a bit of a joke, you might have been better off taking the train of something.

Nah,I had to take my sister and all her shit down to Hamilton so she can start uni in a couple of weeks.

Are there any tolls on auckland motorways?

No, not yet anyway.

Maybe why everyone decides to drive/or be driven to work. There is no choice, especially for North Harbour residents> no PT, except buses, which use the congested motorway network, am i right?

Aren't there going to be tolls to fund for the new Harbour Bridge?

There maybe a new tolled harbour bridge but that may make the new one a bit useless for people that strongly disagree with it tolls because the existing bridge will be so close to the new one. Congestion charges are more likely to be introduced, to the main congestion areas. This will not happen until the western ring route is finished (2016 lol)

This map shows the motorway sections likely to be tolled (congestion charges)

http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/Full%20Map%20Auckland%202.JPG

The western ring is not entirely shown on this map.

Click Here (http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/Western%20Ring.htm) to see it.

Hopefully, it should reduce carbon monoxide levels in Auckland significantly, tolls=less cars=less pollution.

^ From the map showing where Auckland may introduce tolls...

I agree that the area highlighted should be (electronically) tolled at all (6) entry/exits to/from the city...only problem is for inter-provincial travel from the south to Whangarei would be tolled too...

Any pictures of proposal UPPER HARBOUR BRIDGE DUPLICATION?...It started construction last month and i cant find a website on aerials...etc.. :)

Here is one of my pics and there are some more on the page from my website.

http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/Upper%20Habour.htm

Hopefully, it should reduce carbon monoxide levels in Auckland significantly, tolls=less cars=less pollution.

Finally some sense from you boy! lol ;)

^ Well, of course it would reduce the monoxide levels, due to the fact the circled areas experiance high traffic volumes, so the tolls will inccur quite a positive impact on the city.

lol, you missed the point. of course what you said is correct. I'm merely applauding! :)

:lol: Discrete applauding for a semi intullectual post. :D

Semi indeed! Certainly better than what you usually produce (lol, now i sound like a teacher)

:lol: By running of on a tangent about some visionary Auckland Waterfront when the thread topic it was in was about a 1990 vision for a new Wellington waterfront, anyway, back to the topic of Auckland Transport...

yes, we need to find a good way for getting Aucklanders out of their cars.

Well, look at Singapores system, increadibly efficiant by using tolls and cars have to be used to their maxium capacity (usually 5 people per car), and they have less traffic also they use less fuel, but see the common phrase "Aucklanders love their cars" is true and a serious problem.

And also the fact that Singapore is reasonalby well planned, while Auckland is not.

I feel you guys are onto something there....Auckland to model Singapore. :)
That is something Auckland should aim for. As a growing city, of comparable size to Stockholm, Singapore, Copenhagen, Zurich,... (the 1 million+ mark), the right combination of road/rail infrastructure must be implemented.

>>Im doing a project on tourism to NZ and im sort of inspired by comparing cities with Auckland for future needs.

Auckland land size can be compared to places like Brisbane, Marseille and Manchester, only thing is that these 3 cities have rather efficiant transport systems. Why didn't Auckland keep the tram network... :(

True. However how is ACTUALLY used as 'urban area'?

we had a big discussion about this, see the "How big is Auckland?" thread

^ :cheers:

Update on the Downtown Ferry Terminal situation:

Phase one is basically complete:

http://img214.exs.cx/img214/7915/ferryterminal13rz.jpg

http://img40.exs.cx/img40/1426/ferryterminal27yc.jpg

Shit thats better than the old terminal, good on you Auckland, gold star!

How fast do the ferries go in Auckland anyway? are they considered high speed??