First up we have an opening date of 26th March for the third northbound lane through the Victoria Park tunnel.
The third lane in Auckland’s Victoria Park Tunnel will open on Monday, 26 March and the NZ Transport Agency says it will make drivers’ journeys on State Highway 1 to the North Shore and beyond much quicker.
On the same day, the moveable lane barrier operating on the Auckland Harbour Bridge will start its extended run to the Fanshawe Street intersection – providing an additional fifth lane through St Marys Bay for northbound traffic during the afternoon peak.
‘On 26 March we will be unlocking the full potential of the Victoria Park Tunnel project,” says the NZTA’s State Highways Manager for Auckland and Northland, Tommy Parker. “When we have the third tunnel lane open and the extra lane through St Marys Bay, journeys from Greenlane to the Auckland Harbour Bridge will be quicker and easier.”
“In January we delivered big improvements for drivers going south by reconfiguring the Vic Park flyover for four southbound lanes. It’s estimated that drivers are saving six to eight minutes on trips south of Fanshawe Street.
“Now it is the turn of those driving north to benefit from the increased motorway capacity built as part of the Victoria Park Tunnel project.”
Mr Parker says people will need to drive with care until they get used to the new northbound driving conditions.
When the moveable lane barrier machine ends its afternoon run to Fanshawe Street at about 3.30pm, a gate will open to provide drivers from both Fanshawe and Beaumont Streets with access to the peak lane. The peak lane will close at 7pm when the lane barrier machine begins its return trip to close the fifth lane on the bridge.
The opening of the northbound motorway improvements means that, for the first time, the number of peak-time traffic lanes through St Marys Bay will match the five lanes open on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
The tunnel’s third lane will extend back to the ramp signals where traffic from the Northwestern Motorway (SH16) and Grafton Gully merges with SH1.
It will be interesting to see just how well this gated “peak lane” works in real life because when watching the video below I think it will cause all kinds of confusion for drivers.
The last part of the press release also raises a few questions.
“In time, as further improvements are made in Grafton Gully, we expect this exit to become the preferred route home for commuters who work east of Queen Street,” Mr Parker says.
The Victoria Park Tunnel project is one of the seven roads of national significance and completion of the project, which includes the 450 metre-long tunnel, will eliminate the last serious traffic bottleneck on the central motorway junction between the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the Newmarket Viaduct.
“For years, that section of motorway through Victoria Park has been the most heavily congested on the Auckland network. That will all be in the past when drivers become used to the completed project and benefit from more reliable and safer journeys,” Mr Parker says.
Mr Parker says it is not planned to re-open the Wellington Street on ramp when the third lane in the tunnel opens. A joint Auckland Transport and NZTA team will make a decision on the future use of the Wellington Street on ramp later this year.
What are these further improvements to Grafton Gully and how much will they cost? Also while it might no longer be the most congested part of the motorway network that doesn’t mean it won’t still be congested which is the impression I get from the wording.
The second piece of news is a $35 million upgrade of the Papakura interchange started today.
Construction has started on a $35m project to upgrade the Papakura interchange on Auckland’s Southern Motorway (State Highway 1) after a ceremony this morning to mark the start of work.
The improvements are aimed at allowing for the future growth in Papakura and Karaka in the next 20 years and improving safety for all road users.
“This project is a vital one for the community to ensure that the future transport needs of the area, particularly Hingaia and Karaka are met” says the NZTA’s State Highways Manager for Auckland and Northland, Tommy Parker. “This is a busy interchange, and one that will get busier, and the improvements will increase safety – not just for drivers, but for walkers and cyclists.”
The project will include a new 3 lane 16.8 metre wide bridge over the motorway which will include a shared pedestrian and cycle path, an additional northbound on-ramp at Hilldene Road, and traffic signals at key intersections.
Local iwi led by Ngati Tamaoho and community leaders joined the NZTA and its contractor, HEB Construction, at this morning’s event. Auckland City Councillor for Papakura, Calum Penrose, took control of a digger to turn the project’s first sod.
The project is due to be completed in December 2013, and one of the most significant improvements will impact on drivers from Karaka, who will no longer need to cross on-coming traffic to get onto the motorway northbound. .
“It’s a challenging job making improvements in the middle of a busy interchange, and we will be doing everything we can to keep disruptions to a minimum. Drivers will be travelling through a live worksite and we ask them to take care for the safety of themselves and their passengers, and for those working to upgrade the interchange,” says Mr Parker.
For more information, visit www.nzta.govt.nz/network/projects/project.html?ID=185
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Strange that the video doesn’t show things a bit further to the north where you have the chaos of all those lanes merging with the main motorway.
That peak lane is really really stupid. It means we add another merge into the system in a really dangerous location. Only 5 lanes over the bridge and 3 from the tunnel plus three from Fanshawe equals 6. Plus where’s the bus lane for the 80% of people on Fanshawe who are travelling by bus? From what I can see it ends about halfway down the Fanshawe Street onramp pushing buses back into the main traffic lanes.
So much for this being a key part of the Northern Busway RTN.
I with you on this Peter. It’s just bizarre. From their press release I’m sensing that they will be removing ramp metering from the Northern Link from SH16 and having a dedicated onramp for this onto SH1. So 3 solid lanes of traffic through the tunnel will then have to merge with another lane shortly after exit. It’s just not going to work. And I just can’t see the need- there are 2 lanes down Fanshaw St, travelling no faster than 50km/h (if that) moving onto a motorway with an 80km/h speed limit. So there doesn’t seem to be an opportunity to increase the flow or provide more capacity from Fanshaw St in any case.
Even 2 cars in their video agree. They bolt for the inside lane just after crossing Beaumont St from Fanshaw St. And at 30 sec we have a white car making an illegal lane change.
The comment on Grafton Gully works is scary since the first we often hear of projects is when the diggers turn up. I can’t imagine it’s prep work for the Council’s plan for covers for the motorway in this area.
Yes I forgot to mention that with all of these lanes buses will still have to fight general traffic despite the route being designated an RTN. The NZTA seem to pick and chose when they want to follow the RTN’s as they wouldn’t build a busway along SH16 as it hadn’t been listed as an RTN but in cases were it is listed they ignore it anyway.
To be fair to NZTA (and I really hate doing that), the Henderson to Albany route is in all the plans as only a “possible future RTN”. At least up until the Auckland Plan where it seems to definitely be highlighted in yellow as a “definite” part of the future Rapid Transit Network.
See here:
http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/northern/victoriaviaduct/fanshawelayout.html
The peak lane will not add a merge. The lane will connect directly with the the peak only 5th lane through St Marys to the bridge. The only merge will be on the full-time Fanshawe St onramp which will merge from 2 to 1 before joining the motorway proper. I think in practice everyone in the right hand lane on Fanshawe will use the peak gate, unless they are going to Stafford/Onewa.
I think it is actually a really good idea as it will allow those getting on at Fanshawe to select whether they want to be on the middle of the bridge, or the clip-ons prior to getting on the motorway. Those going through the tunnel will also be able to select this early. This will result in much less need for lane changes through St Marys.
Yep, I see that now on the link above that Scott has provided.
To avoid the merge of the two lanes of Fanshaw St traffic the peak lane should be compulsory for the right hand lane fron Fanshaw. NZers are not really that good at merging and it’s best avoided if we have the capacity to do do.
So the merge occurs between the right hand lane from the regular Fanshawe ramp and the leftmost lane coming out of the tunnel. That will be fun for both sides.
NZTA should cut their losses and make the two regular Fanshawe lanes mere into one before the tunnel portal, so that this carries on as one full lane rather than merging. It’s going to be much better to have those lanes merge together on the ramp before getting to the motorway, then have one merge with traffic coming blind out of the tunnel while the other lane simultaneously merges with buses. At peak times you’d still have that second special ramp on the right too, so still two full dedicated motorway lanes from Fanshawe (which is plenty to drain two surface street lanes from Fanshawe alternating with two from Beaumont).
Plus merging those two lanes before the tunnel portal pinch point would give enough width to extend the bus lane that currently disappears after about 50m.
Oh and a further thing I just realised. In the counterpeak northbound the third lane on the right coming out of the tunnel will need to merge with the middle lane just after the portal (as the bridge will be down to three lanes in the counterpeak direction).
So that means counterpeak all lanes coming out of the tunnel will have to merge at the northern portal, the two rightmost lanes will have to merge together, while the left most lane will have to merge with the rightmost lane of the regular Fanshawe on ramp.
That’s going to be quite the quagmire.
Look at the link Scott has provided and it all will be clear (scroll down to the intersection diagrams as the 3D pictures do not convey the lane situation very well at all.
http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/northern/victoriaviaduct/fanshawelayout.html
‘NZTA should cut their losses and make the two regular Fanshawe lanes mere into one before the tunnel portal’. No, they have decided it best to have the bus lane merge with general traffic.
Ok the he first set of diagrams are totally wrong. The second one is correct and does show a long merge between two onramp lanes, and not the tunnel: http://www.aucklandmotorways.co.nz/northern/victoriaviaduct/fanshawelayoutwithstmarys.html
Of course NZTA have decided it’s best to have the bus lane merge with general traffic, because they don’t give two shits about bus passengers. Buses have to merge in almost immediately so that two lanes on the offramp can have a longer stretch before merging anyway. Why not merge these two almost immediately so that buses can have the longer stretch of dedicated lane?
After all, about 80% of people using Fanshawe St are on a bus, do we really need *three* lanes of long luxurious on-ramp for those 20% of drivers while the 80% using public transport have to give way to them?
So your typical Auckland driver wanting to come off at Onewa will soon learn that in order to avoid the snarl-up of two traffic lanes plus buses all merging together, it’s best to use the peak lane and then cut back across 5 lanes of traffic. Won’t that be fun?
So NZTA, how much did pointlessly rebuilding the Wellington Street onramp cost and whose head is going to roll for wasting millions of dollars on this debacle?
I can see one possible silver lining here, the potential for a dedicated bus lane. One of the two lanes on the regular side could be a full buslane right through, that would leave one full lane for general traffic from Fanshawe at all times, plus the second lane in the afternoon peak.
That would help avoid too much of a quagmire when you’ve got those three lanes operational through the tunnel.
All that money being spent in a futile effort to make journey times faster for people who drive themselves to work at peak times! Dear Lord why? (sobs quietly into his keyboard, before retiring to bed…)
The main reason for building the tunnel is because the viaduct is expected to be unusable following a major earthquake. Over the past 12 years Transit has fixed all the seismic weaknesses identified in Wellington and Auckland. The process was commenced in Christchurch in 2009 after being deferred for 5 years. Obviously somebody at the Cabinet table thought they knew more about each cities seismic risk than GNS.
Refs:
Auckland Engineering Lifelines Report – Final Report, November 1999 (ARC Technical Publication No. 112, Nov. 1999)
and
http://www.caenz.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100%3Arisks-and-realities-a-multidisciplinary-approach-to-the-vulnerability-of-lifelines-to-natural-hazards&catid=8&Itemid=54
Not at all Kevyn. They are still planning to strengthen the existing viaduct for earthquake resistance, they could have done just that tunnel or no tunnel. The tunnel is simply to add three lanes of capacity.
I had to laugh at one thing the video unintentionally illustrated. During the Fanshawe St phase we see 19 cars in two lanes and
4 buses in one lane pass through the intersection. Which lane potentially carried more people?
I accept the video is not necessarily based on reality but I did find it funny.
Also I must agree with Cam, all this money to save how many seconds during peak time.
Bus priority with lanes all the way over the harbour bridge both directions please. Speed those buses up.
Until we have that there is no need to build a second harbour crossing…
I don’t recall seeing this planned in any of the original stuff for the VPT, in fact I seem to recall reading something about how “motorists will see the extra lane when they come out fot he tunnel but there will never be any cars on it” or something to that effect.
Was this stupidity always on the cards?
The peak lane is rather clever really. Without it there would be more lane changes needed for everyone all the time.
It is amazing how well we can build complex roads. Too bad no one sits down and thinks about PT as well.
I noticed in the Feb AT board minutes, funding was denied by NZTA for a concept design of a station at Drury. Presumably this would be a large park-in-ride. Folks in Karaka would be glad for it i’m sure. IIRC Papakura station doesn’t have much parking.
“Declined due to funding constraints, highest priority is given to funding station upgrades on the network currently being electrified. Station upgrades on the non electrified part of the network are therefore not able to be funded at present, AT will be reapplying when NZTA’s financial conditions improve”
Which will be never.
Also declined for the same reason was a design work for a upgrade of Pukekohe station.
PS: Is it just me that keeps entering the CAPTCHA code in the Website box?
No. I do it all the time and it’s damned annoying!
I think it times out. – if you type a long comment you need to click the CAPTCHA refresh button to get a new code before posting.
Any hope that the buses might at the very least get a priority light when heading off to their disappearing buslane? That would go some way to sorting out the poor man’s merge that they have to do.