Another state highway project and another pretty animation, this time it is the turn of Puhoi to Warkworth.
http://youtu.be/k9hceuyND-0
Some of the earthworks in this project are going to be absolutely massive although in this video doesn’t really show them as well as the previous video due to it being zoomed out a bit more. Also I find it interesting how the NZTA is very reluctant to say anything about what the time savings of this road actually are, for pretty much every other project they tout how much faster it will make journeys e.g. they say Waterview will take 15 minutes off the journey from the Airport to the CBD. I suspect this is because the time savings aren’t actually that great. It’s also interesting how they show the the existing road all the way to Whangarei, I wonder if this is their attempt to tie Northland into a project that exists solely with the borders of the Auckland Region or if they are indicating that they want to eventually extend the motorway all of the way to Whangarei?
Here is a similar video they releases last year when the indicative route was announced, you can see a bit more clearly some of the huge earthworks and viaducts that are being planned.
http://youtu.be/0zg97mnPxCM
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I actually think the time saving will be significant provided they get the interchange at the end correct. They almost need it to split in three at the end – one going north, one to the beaches and one to warkworth. If they do the interchange wrong, all it will do is create a nicer road to crawl along when the traffic gets heavy.
[not saying that they couldn’t save similar time for less money by just improving the current road and bypassing warkworth better – multiply traffic lights in short difference on state highway 1 is stupid]
This Puhoi to Warkworth project is a colossal waste of time / money and the supposed economic benefits are completely suprious. i hope it never gets built.
WTF? Why would you spend all that money to build a road almost in the middle of nowhere, to go nowhere and carry almost no one?
“171,000 residents in Northland by 2031”. According to wikipedia there are 158,000 residents currently……. Hardly justification for this road that ony goes halfway there?? If the only positive things they can think up for this road are – better tourist connection, easier for freight, improved safety – then that is hardly worth billions of spending.
Can’t wait for a “Rail of National Significance – CRL” video, it would completely own this cr@p.
Why is everyone acting like this road is a good thing it isn’t I’m worried that doing this will push Auckland’s urban sprawl further north like when the Northern Motorway was extended to Albany 15 something years ago. Not too mention that it goes almost to the middle of nowhere.
I hope Warkworth doesn’t become another Albany! That is another concern so we should be doing everything in our power to stop this from being built
I wish i could make a video for the CRL which matches this or even better the waterview one. A member of public making an eleborate video for free would open more eye’s to the unbalanced transport spending.
Know anyone with the skills?
Unfortunately no.
Another reason is that the $760M price tag which could rise doesn’t justify the need for the project and this is just to extend the road to Warkworth!. A modest $250m to improve the strecth of road between Puhoi and Warkworth is what is needed the most. Projects like this and Waterview will squeeze funding for other areas in NZ for many years to come!
Meanwhile…maybe an admission that Warkworth to Wellsford is a long way off if ever.
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/about/media/releases/1927/news.html
Puhoi Wellsford looks like it will be an astounding success based on National and NZTA’s important transport strategies and priorities:
– new call-out designs in RONS videos
– updated colour palette
– less clutter and distraction like any hint of detail
– bigger bird’s eye view despite shortened length
– addition of music and possible project funding through soundtrack sales
– increase in economic activity for Google and ISPs with more youtube content
– possible cross-funding and strategic benefits meeting NZ on air local content targets
Have the NZTA released any figures for what they’ve spent on this project so far and all the associated
propagandacommunication?Some notes:
A lot of emphasis on freight in the video, including the growth in forestry. Couldnt logs go by rail? Oh wait, the rail lines going to be shut.
Do tourists really choose where they are going based on whether there are motorways?
Won’t the roundabout at the end just get clogged on holidays? Why no interchange if they are already spending 2 billion dollars on this thing?
I support some of the RONS as they make economic sense. This ones just nuts.
“Reduced Inclines For Trucks”
If Northland is going to boom with freight and tourism why not upgrade the railway line instead? Tourist trains and freight trains. Perfect. How much is this RONS going to cost? 760 million! (at the least) How much would a Warkworth by-pass & safety upgrade of the current road cost? $200-$300 million? and an upgraded rail route to Marsden point for trains and a tourist train service that terminates at Opua (Bay of Islands) and stoping at Helensville, Kawakawa & Whangarei on the way. It would be very good for tourism. I would much rather sit on a train rather than a coach. What would a track upgrade, re-instate, tunnel enlargement from Auckland to Opua cost? It would protect Northland and Marsden from any future oil shocks. I don’t get this government.
I know that there are plenty of people at NZTA who think this project is completely nuts and are just going along with it because they have to. You can almost see that in some of the propaganda coming out about the project – it’s so laughable, you start thinking that there might be some deliberate effort into making it so laughable. If you follow me.
The key will be to minimise the amount of money wasted on this project before the next election and then pray this bunch of idiots get kicked out.
It is a little gold plated, but I think if Wellsford is a planned growth node, Marsden point is going to be growing, and Northland does need any help it can get, I’m a supporter
It’s a bit of a loop, Warkworth (not Wellsford) is listed as a growth node by the council in part to take advantage of the fact the government is charging ahead with the road regardless of it’s value but then the NZTA use the fact it is a growth node to help justify the thing.
As for it’s value to Northland, it’s dubious at best. All up the bit to Warkworth is only expected to save about 5 minutes and currently traffic on SH1 north of Warkworth only carries about 8000 vehicles per day. Most of that comes from bypassing Warkworth so getting goods to/from the north 5 minutes faster isn’t going to revolutionise much. If it was truely about improving Northland then spending that money in the region would be a good start. I bet they could get considerably more benefits from spreading that money across a number of smaller projects in the region.
Warkworth is the very bottom end of Northland. It is a 4 hour drive to Kaitia form here. So ethis will help poeple from Auckland get to Kaitaia like it will help people from Wellsford get to Tauranga
Nicely put.
Some interesting rumours circulating that the motorway north of Wakworth could be scrapped in favour of a lower standard upgrade but extending that upgrade further north. I guess someone finally told the Minister than none of the project actually was in Northland!
Surely some work on SH1 over the Brynderwynns would produce much bigger time savings.
They can’t even get their statistics right! The current road only has around 17,000 vehicles per day, according to their own figures!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10802539
Article/whinge in yesterday’s Herald about UFB issues. Great comment from user ‘Karetao’…
“In Whangarei I am enjoying our 50 down 50 up fiber with 150GB cap and phone for just $99 (Uber is the provider). This infrastructure is far far more valuable to us than investment on the Auckland to Whangarei highway. And that’s just looking at it from a business perspective.”
Also evidenced by the fast growth in internet traffic compared with flatlined traffic growth…. stop investing in last century; it’s over, gone.
We are focusing on this stupid road we should be concerned about another one being built. “Transmission Gully” it makes my blood boil when Stephen Joyce says this is a good thing for NZ! Well I’ve sent him a nice email saying how I feel about it hahaha.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1205/S00095/govt-welcomes-transmission-gully-draft-decision.htm
The is a lot of support to fix the Gisbourne line that needs only $4million and the government wants to waste over a billion on roads thats a lot of money to not worry about our hard earned cash is being wasted on pet projects!!!!!!!