Auckland’s second most important project officially kicked off today by Len Brown. AMETI which is a range of road and PT projects is to help improve transport in East Auckland which is probably the worst urban area in the whole region when it comes to transport options. It started life after the eastern highway idea was canned and was quite a big roads fest and while that is still quite, thankfully over time it has incorporated stronger PT improvements which will eventually include a busway between Panmure and Botany. The first stage is a $180m project and is focused around Panmure and here is some of the benefits that AT claim will be a result of the project:
AMETI Panmure transport benefits
- New AMETI road will cut ten minutes off the journey time between Glen Innes and Mt Wellington when open in 2014 (phase one)
- It will carry 20,000 vehicles per day, including 2,400 trucks as a result of the better connection for business and freight traffic
- The new road will reduce traffic on Mt Wellington Highway (40%), Ellerslie Panmure Highway (33%), Jellicoe Rd (40%) and Apirana Ave (20%). Much of this reduction will be freight traffic – heavy commercial vehicle flows on Jellicoe Rd are forecast to reduce from 3200 trucks per day to less than 400 and on Ellerslie-Panmure Highway past Panmure station from 3600 to less than 700.
- Reduced traffic through Panmure roundabout, providing benefits for Pakuranga, Howick and Botany drivers and allowing an upgrade to a signalised intersection in phase two
- 6km of new cycle lanes/paths and 5.5km of new or improved footpaths, 12 new signal controlled pedestrian crossings when both Panmure phases are complete
- Lagoon Drive busway to be used by 21,000 passengers per day, 5.5 Million per year (phase two)
- Improved Panmure rail station will attract 6,500 passengers per day, 1.7 million per year.
Here is a map of the current focus of the project:
And here’s Len officially kicking things off.
On the PT improvements, one interest fact is that AT claim Busway is eventually expected to have 5.5 million passengers a year, compared to the current 2.2 million using the Northern Busway (although that doesn’t count other buses that use the busway like express buses). Like New Lynn I think that Panmure is one of the biggest opportunities we have for urban renewal based around an existing train station but only time will tell how well it goes.
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Thank goodness they’re getting rid of the roundabout! That’s got to be one of the scariest things to drive through in all of Auckland.
Is the phase one stretch going to be an elevated highway above the railway? Certainly the map shows the blue strip covering the railway corridor.
No it will be next to the rail line and I guess it just shows over the rail line as a graphical representation. It will go under EP highway and will be next to the station, it will then be covered over and another road built on top which will be for things like buses and taxi’s interchanging with the station.
Stage one of AMETI’s motorway ends up on a narrow urban street in Glen Innes. Here. It is quite frankly ridiculous. Just take a look at these narrow streets surrounding an urban centre. They’re already at capacity during peak hours.
It only makes sense if they build an entire Eastern Motorway. I get the feeling that bad things are going to happen, because the roading lobby is still as strong as ever.
Yes this is how they work, lobby for an expensive project on the grounds it will relieve congestion where as in fact it just moves and amplifies any problems, then lobby for the next mega project on the basis of this new need. Never ever does anyone go back and compare claims about what such spending will achieve against what results… Of course the only way to change these problems is to stop feeding the monster.
It’s also hard to imagine them not wanting to create a virtual motorway to the Southern, in front of Sylvia Park. But at the very least there are 4-6 lanes there, and a large amount of capacity. I invite anyone to look at Merton Rd for themselves. There is literally nowhere for traffic to go. Nowhere. A planning disaster, wrapped up in the fuzzy presentation of public transport improvements.
The AMETI Rd is of course merely the Eastern Highway in guise, leading to demands for widening of roads in GI. The council should have begun with the busway then come back and looked to see whether this highway is even necessary.
Of course! More sense from the BBC
Changes to urban limits for greenfield development, AMETI, East West Nielson Road motorway, PT harbour crossing out to the never never and fighting with the govt over the rail link, holiday highway etc. This does not look good for the Auckland City we want.
I have to say, this new road makes little sense. The Ellerslie-Panmure Highway is six lanes, linking to four lanes to Ellerslie, and four lanes to Mt Wellington. Big roads, serving big and busy areas. So, what is this new two lane road supposed to achieve? It’s so low-capacity that it will make no difference. At both ends it has intersections with busy roads, so my prediction is that the new road will be congested from day 1.
My suggestion, and yes this sounds horrible but it does actually have some merit, would be to make the new two lane road a truck-only road, so that it actually serves a purpose, of separating cars and trucks. Leave the cars on the existing multi-lane roads, and let the trucks move more freely between GI and South Auckland via the new road.
So will the trucking companies pay a fee for using this truck only road or do we build it and subsidise it for their use? The road will actually only be 1 lane each way initially expanded to 2 at a later date.
Geoff, the argument is that it it is needed because unless you take that north-south traffic off the roundabout, the future traffic signals will not have enough capacity to also provide west-east bus priority. So neither the “it won’t do anything” or the “It’s just about the Eastern Motorway by stealth!” arguments sound pretty one-sided assessments to me.
Also, would you prefer a larger road? Traffic is easily induced if you add capacity. You want just enough to enable the busway, but no more.
I’ve never had a problem with that round about. (I fear the Royal Oak one more) Removing the round-about will probably make things worse for vehicles in terms of delays. You would have to replace it with a huge intersection. The time for pedestrians to cross will be significant. Then additional phases for buses? So much dead time…so inefficient.
Hi does anyone know about the 1.1b roaring corridor through Onehunga I read about in the NZ Herald pg a7 metro this morning. Nothing I could find on ACC website. Thanks
@Martin – you should search for Nielson Street (or Neilson Street) in recent documents, including the RLTP and the LTCCP. The boondongle will be in there somewhere.
@Ari – yes, the layout of the signals is MASSIVE. Partially because the locals refuse to accept an intersection which bans some movements to or from the town centre. But short of grade separating, signals seem to be the only way that seems feasible to give buses the priority they need. Some other movements can run during the bus phases too, such as some turns on/off the highway, and some pedestrian phases. And the pedestrians, even with long crossing distances, will be much better off than before.
And as a cyclist, I can’t agree with the comment that the roundabout is unproblematic. I have also been told (but cannot confirm) that it has a pretty bad general crash record.