PRIVATE Transport

[aucklandman]

Keep it coming guys!

Old: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...422643&page=27

[Kane007]

Ok folks, crossed the Albany Interchange on my way to work this morning, and took note of the new posted speed limit on the on ramp - 100 km/h - 3 cheers to transit

[jarbury]

Yay! Will probably drive along it this coming Saturday as I need to go to Albany again. Can't wait to really let it rip!

[Kane007]

Let us know how your times compare with your usual route.

[jarbury]

Don't really have a "usual route". I need to pick up flight tickets from the Albany Flight Centre so wouldn't normally go via North-West Motorway. But I will this time for a change!

[aucklandman]

Just drove the whole length and took some photos, amazing! So quick!

[Kane007]

You uploading them first to your website?

[Kane007]

Just thinking more about this mornings NZ Herald article about SH18 being still 6 months away from being Gazetted as a motorway - parking and photography on the kerb should be fine

If someone at transit is stupid enough not to have the cycle facilities up and ready then, frack em, I say cycle on the shoulder to your hearts content!

I've cycled the SH20a to the airport, as this is NOT A MOTORWAY! And neither is SH18 YET - Oh yea, walking and hitch hiking should also be OK until they get their A into G!

[kegan]

From the Herald:

Love of cars could lead to road charges
5:00AM Wednesday December 12, 2007
By Mathew Dearnaley

Government officials are pointing to the high rate at which vehicle ownership is outstripping Auckland's population growth as justification for pressing on with studies into charging motorists to use congested roads.

As the region's population rose 12.4 per cent between 2001 and 2006, to 1.303 million people, the number of vehicles registered in the Auckland postal district leapt by 19.4 per cent - to 1.005 million.

These included 764,940 cars, among other vehicles such as 106,868 trucks, 4069 buses, and 2766 taxis.

In the same five years, the number of Aucklanders driving vehicles to work or learning institutions rose by 60,000 to 396,765 by Census day in March last year, representing 74.9 per cent of commuters.

Ministry of Transport principal adviser Chris Money said that continuing to build new roads would not be enough to keep up with a projected 31 per cent population growth by 2026.

There would be 200,000 more working-age Aucklanders, and an increase of elderly people would offer little relief, as they would simply add to pressure between peak travel times.

Mr Money said Aucklanders had to consider ways to make roads function more efficiently and to encourage more people to use public transport.

Although only 25 per cent of 800 submissions supported initial suggestions last year for road-pricing schemes, Transport Minister Annette King has instructed officials to consult interested parties and report back to her in March on how their concerns may be addressed.

The ministry, which spent $2.3 million in the first round of investigations by consultants, has budgeted almost $1.5 million more to explore two hypothetical schemes based on charging motorists to drive at busy times around central Auckland.

One is aimed primarily at reducing congestion at a theoretical maximum of $6 a day and the other to raise revenue for public transport at a capped daily charge of $3.

Mr Money emphasised that the ministry was not designing any particular scheme for Government approval, but using models to assess how they may affect various sections of the community, including central Auckland businesses.

He said many overseas cities, including New York and five others in the United States, were considering following London and Stockholm in introducing road charges.

He believed Auckland needed to give serious consideration to how to stay competitive with other cities, by addressing congestion.

Automobile Association spokesman Simon Lambourne said the initial study was conducted in "a clandestine manner" and he welcomed the more open approach of the follow-up.

But he did not believe Aucklanders would find road-pricing any more acceptable after Ms King reconsidered the issue next year, when he said motorists would in the run-up to the general election be feeling even more "hammered" in anticipation of carbon levies and a new regional fuel tax to pay for public transport.

VEHICLE GROWTH

• The number of registered vehicles in Auckland jumped from 842,002 in 2001 to 1,005,709 in 2006.
  
• The 19 per cent increase is higher than the 12 per cent rise in population.
  
• The number of people driving to work is up 60,000 to almost 400,000.

[aucklandman]

On that note:

New Images of Upper Harbour: http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/u...reenhithe.html

[Kane007]

Sweet!

It is a nice piece of road.

[jarbury]

Interesting article Kegan. I'm with Brian Rudman on road pricing being a very inequitable way to manage demand. It's basically "you can only drive on the road if you're rich enough" which is pretty unfair.

Expand the bloody rail system instead!

[Brizzy-Mike]

Basically the wealthier are going to have to pay the poor to stay off the roads. Or keep on complaining about congestion.

[Svartmetall]

Originally Posted by aucklandman

On that note:

New Images of Upper Harbour: http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/u...reenhithe.html

That road does look to have been built to a high level of quality, though I oppose road expansion.

As for what has been talked about with regards to congestion charging - you can't impliment congestion charging til there is a cost effective and efficient system to compete with taking the car. Currently this isn't the case.

London has the Underground, Overground, tramlink and highly extensive buses
Stockholm has the Tunnelbanen, trams and the Pendeltag
New York has the Subway and NJ Transit

You can't compare these and therefore until there is a rail system expansion, congestion charging simply can't be implimented.

[aucklandman]

It is a well constructed motorway, but its a shame that it lacks any PT, but then again it doesnt really need priority as it doesnt get congested.

[jarbury]

Busy intersection to be remade in a week
5:00AM Monday December 17, 2007
By Mathew Dearnaley

Auckland City officials have spent several months planning an ambitious "traffic management" exercise in the New Year to allow contractors to remodel one of the busiest intersections.

The Harp of Erin in Greenlane will be transformed from a difficult and sprawling five-point intersection into a series of three T-junctions early next month, in what the council says is a bid to reduce queuing and allow freer-flowing traffic, particularly buses.

Relocated signals will keep traffic queues further back from the intersection, to reduce holdups after the lights change, and new pedestrian crossings will be installed across the heads of Main Highway and Great South Rd.

Although Great South Rd has been widened in that sector to provide greater carrying capacity, primarily for buses, a long landscaped strip will be built along the centre of the intersection to realign flows from Main Highway and from Campbell Rd in the opposing direction.

The impact of Wairakei St on the intersection will be reduced by banning traffic from turning right into Great South Rd, and advance boxes will be provided at four sets of traffic lights from which cyclists will gain a head start on other vehicles.

Two new crossings will also be installed just north of the intersection, at the junction of Woodbine Ave and Great South Rd, to make it safer for pedestrians to reach bus-stops on new bus-priority lanes.

But to attain their goal of balancing better longer-term traffic flows with safer pedestrian movements, the council and its contractors face a major challenge to complete that section of their $26 million Project Greenlane upgrade between January 6 and 12, to take advantage of the holiday period.

Although there will only be one full planned closure of the intersection, from 8pm on January 7 to 6am the next day, traffic will be reduced to one lane at all other times and subject to manual stop-go directions at night.

That has prompted the council to plan an elaborate series of detour routes, particularly for the night of the full closure, but also in case of any major holdups at other times.

Council transport infrastructure delivery group manager Tim Lott said the work had been planned in hourly blocks throughout the six-day exercise, and several layers of contingency plans could be drawn on in case of bad weather.

Mr Lott said the intersection was part of Auckland City's busiest transport interchange, through which 55,000 vehicles passed on an average working day. The volume was expected to be half that during the remodelling work, although the council did not want to discourage people travelling to Greenlane car yards or other local destinations.


Project Greenlane, which is centred on widening Great South Rd for bus lanes and improvements to its even busier intersection with Greenlane East and Greenlane West, has had a tortuous history since work began early in 2006.

Although Transit NZ completed associated improvements to its Greenlane motorway interchange early this year for just under $5 million, the council faced a $14 million cost blowout amid wrangling with landowners, difficult volcanic ground conditions, unidentified service lines and recruitment and retention problems in its project management team.

Mr Lott, who was appointed just over a year ago from the construction industry, said he had recruited enough staff to ensure there was no lack of skills and his priority was to help to restore the council's reputation.

TRAFFIC UPGRADE

* January 6-7. Traffic down to one lane. Day: traffic lights; night: stop-go operation.

* January 7-8 (overnight). Full road closure 8pm-6am.

* January 8-12. Traffic down to one lane. Day: traffic lights; night: stop-go. TRAFFIC

[Kane007]

Hope it pans out - this stretch of road in rush hour, or even a major down pour, is a shocker!

[jarbury]

I've seen all the plans for this as my company did a lot of the earlier "community relations" (we were the ones who pissed off the caryards! LOL) I think they've made the right decision to go crazy for a week and get as much done as possible, rather than panysing about for ages.

Services relocation along Great South Road was a mission for the contractors. I remember looking down one of the holes and seeing about 12 different pipes of one sort or another. Apparently the main internet broadband pipe to the rest of Auckland goes down this road, with some big IT firm servicing half the world's databanks of some sort relying on it. Pretty scary job all up. Relocating the gas mains required an 8 hour continuous weld on each joint.

[Kane007]

Big Push For Final Earthworks Season

Around 1.2 million cubic metres of material will be removed from the 55-metre deep cut through Chin Hill.

The fourth and final earthworks season (1 October–30 April) for the NGA is well under way. What has been achieved so far and what lies ahead is impressive.

The numbers are remarkable. Since work began in December 2004 the NGA has moved in excess of 3.2 million cubic metres of material, which once rain delays are accounted for, translates to around 10,000 cubic metres of material per day – the equivalent of four Olympic size swimming pools. In fact if you were to place all the earth moved so far on a rugby field it would be more than 600metres high, and there is still a further 1 million cubic metres to go.

The art of a successful earthworks program lies in detailed planning of the mass haul. The movement of every bucket of earth is carefully planned
months and sometimes years in advance. However, the different soil conditions that the team encounter mean that plans must be flexible; areas that they thought would be plain sailing can turn out to be laden with soggy clays and create quite the challenge.

In the first season, earthworks were restricted to pockets of activity separated by bush, valleys and water – meaning that the daily volumes being moved were comparatively low. Earthworks and Roading Manager, Gavin Hendricks, explains: “Back then we were focussed on establishment activities like building access tracks and installing drainage, as the project has progressed we’ve been able to move more earth across bigger distances.”

The completion of the Otanerua Viaduct in September 2006 was a key piece of the puzzle, giving dump trucks a free run from the cut at Chin Hill into the Otanerua Valley. Throughout the 06/07 season they trucked more than 1 million cubic metres of material across the viaduct to make up the 30-metre high fill above the stream below.

Much material remains to be moved throughout the final earthworks season – a million cubic metres worth. The focus early on is to complete the fill to the north of the Grand Drive round-about, which needs around 75,000 cubic metres of Chin Hill rock. This will be achieved by pooling resources and using 17 dump trucks to shuttle rock 3km from Chin Hill, across the Otanerua and Nukumea Eco-viaducts and into the fill.

For the remainder of the season the team will be finishing the 55-metre Chin Hill cut, completing the final gully fill in the Waiwera Valley and excavating beneath Hillcrest Bridge. Fingers crossed for fi ne weather.

[Kane007]

ALPURT Structures Nearing Completion

Above: Hillcrest Bridge. Below: Nukumea Eco-viaduct.

Since the previous edition of ALPURT News back in September, two more structures on the project have been completed.

In late September the weight of the top down constructed Hillcrest Road bridge was transferred to its permanent ‘big red legs’. The temporary piers that had held it in place were removed and the bridge now sits proudly across the motorway alignment, true to the original ridge line.




A few hundred metres to the south, the final span for the Nukumea Eco-viaduct was completed in October and a few weeks later it was open for business. Extra steel reinforcing ensured that the bridge is happy to handle fully laden dump trucks.

The largest of the structures, the 540- metre Waiwera Viaduct is scheduled to be open for our trucks in April 2008.