The upgrade of Tiverton Road and Wolverton Street, linking SH20 with New Lynn, is shifting forwards – with construction due to begin next year and continue for around two years. The project will effectively widen these two roads from being one lane each way to two lanes each way, as well as turning a couple of existing roundabouts into signalised intersections.
The project’s information page summarises what’s proposed:
Auckland Transport will be upgrading roads to enable a continuous four-lane carriageway for east-west traffic between Clark Street and New Windsor Road, while also providing better access for key business areas of New Lynn, Lansford Crescent and adjacent businesses on Rosebank Road.
Some intersections will be signalised to provide safe movement for vehicles and pedestrians across this corridor. Crossing points with refuge islands will be provided to improve pedestrian safety. Lighting will also be upgraded along the route with new poles and lamps.
On an alternative transit route via Richardson Road, White Swan Road, Hillsborough Road and Donovan Road, intersection signalisation and minor upgrades may be made to improve traffic flows and pedestrian crossings.
Wider footpaths (mainly 2.5 metres on the northern side of the route and 1.8 metres on the southern side) will support safer and improved walking.
The look of the corridor will be improved with the planting of around 105 trees and the undergrounding of Vector power and Telecom services.
Cyclists will be provided with a sign-posted cycle route bypassing Wolverton Street and Tiverton Road, to link the New Lynn town centre to the SH20 cycleway route. The bypass route is on Miranda Street, Margate Road, Mulgan Street, and New Windsor Road.
Fibre-to-the-door ducts will be installed to future-proof the corridor in readiness for ultra-fast broadband and some vehicle crossings and driveways will be upgraded where required for safety reasons.
Old asbestos cement water distribution mains will be removed, relocated and upgraded with polyethylene pipework. Storm water culverts will have flood protection improvements to strengthen the structures and minimise blockage.
Once the main structural works are completed, a major renewal of the road surfaces will be undertaken.
Auckland City Council started the project a few years back, completing a section between Blockhouse Bay Road and Whitney Street. However, budget constraints delayed the rest of the project which has proved to be quite a big problem as the opening of the SH20 Mt Roskill extension has pushed quite a lot of extra traffic onto this route over the past few years. The section already completed in shown in blue below, with the current project noted in red:
A few images showing before and after views are included below:
While no cycleway is proposed along the route itself, there will be improved cycling facilities along adjacent, much quieter, streets. This seems to be a fairly sensible approach (click here for more detail):
In terms of being a necessary road upgrade, I’m fully supportive of this project. Opening SH20 without upgrading this road has put huge pressure on Tiverton Road and Wolverton Street – leading to significant congestion. It’s a bit disappointing that the upgrade doesn’t seem to cater much for public transport. While few routes currently travel along here, it seems a fairly logical route for service improvements in the future. Let’s hope that there are some details to the design which support PT – like bus stop placement, advance boxes at traffic lights and so forth.
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This is a project that I support, I also think the separate cycling route is a good idea, as even though it is a little longer, cyclists don’t have to battle that horrible hill up Tiverton Rd. The other thing is that this is designated as a route for 52t trucks so not somewhere I would want to share a road with as a cyclist.
The only thing that puzzles me about the cycleway is why it could not pass through the school grounds at the end of Maioro, avoiding the steep and busy parts of New Windsor and Mulgan….. Integrated land use and all that…. There is already a set of cycle lanes into the grounds from the end of Maioro… no chance of this now?
The only issue I have is that it is already tough enough to get to Olympic Park from the Southern side. This will make it harder still.
I tried to cross a few months ago with my son to get to the play ground and it took a full 10 minutes to get a chance to cross.
I live in Mulgan Street, which is a narrow road where there have been a number of accidents over the last few years (due to speed) – it is now being used as a rat run – peak times it is difficult to get in or out of my driveway even on the weekends the traffic is continuous & often speed is excessive for the conditions – I am fully aware of the upgrade with all it entails but feel that there needs to be restrictions put in place for this small suburban street I would like to think the amount of traffic that now uses Mulgan Street as a short cut to access Maioro Road is only temporary but feel this will not be the case. I see that Mulgan Street is designated to become a cycleway ?
It has been my recent habit to abandon turning right out of Mulgan street on to New Windsor Road as is too dangerous when the traffic is backed up across the top of Mulgan Street and there is no view to the left so I use Mary Dreaver which has virtually no traffic – (Mulgan is the shorter option) My husband rang me this morning and said he could not get into our driveway the traffic was backed up the whole length of Mulgan Street and around the corner near Pasteur Place