The NZTA are holding open days this week to show their initial designs for their Northern Motorway projects.

People will have their first opportunity to look at the initial concepts and provide feedback for the Northern Corridor Improvements in Auckland at open days being organised by the NZ Transport Agency from next week.

The initial concepts for the important upgrades along Upper Harbour Highway (SH18) and the Northern Motorway (State Highway 1) have been identified and public feedback will help shape the next stage in the design, says the Transport Agency’s Highway Manager Brett Gliddon.

The project is one of a number of key works included in the Government’s accelerated programme to improve transport infrastructure in Auckland.

“We’re quite excited about these open days as we’re presenting concepts to the community and getting their input before we start the detailed investigation process. It’s important we get feedback when developing these significant projects so we can incorporate ideas, where possible, from the people who use these connections on a regular basis. We would really encourage the local community to come along and provide input to the Northern Corridor Improvements project,” says Mr Gliddon.

Open day information (feel free to drop-in at any time during these session times):

Wednesday 12 November, 5pm – 7pm: Northern Corridor Information Hub, 33A Apollo Drive, Rosedale

Thursday 13 November, 6.30am-8.30am & 4.30pm-6.30pm: Constellation Bus Station, Parkway Drive, Rosedale

Saturday 15 November, 10am-4pm: Westfield Albany, next to New World, Don Mckinnon Drive, Albany

Mr Gliddon says the Northern Corridor Improvements will help address the connection issues and pressures the Northern motorway is currently facing and also support the growth of businesses and population in the area and beyond.

“Most people who travel this route on a regular basis know that there are several bottlenecks getting between the Upper Harbour Highway and the Northern Motorway. This can cause significant delays for motorists and commercial vehicles. By upgrading this section of the network, we hope to help create an efficient network and provide more reliable travel times,” Mr Gliddon says.

Key components of the Northern Corridor programme focus on creating a seamless motorway to motorway connection along the Western Ring Route – the Hobsonville, Northwestern and Southwestern Motorways (SHs18, 16 and 20) – between Albany and Manukau to the south, upgrading the Upper Harbour Highway to a motorway, and investigation and consenting to extend the successful Northern Busway from Constellation to the Albany park and ride station. The Transport Agency is also investigating walking and cycling connections as part of the project

The northern motorway projects include these components however crucially the extension of the busway is only being consented after the government pulled funding for it’s construction (supposedly against the NZTA’s advice). It also ignores the massive success the busway has been.

Northern Corridor Improvements

In the governments budget announcement last year they said the Northern Corridor improvements would cost $450 million.

Budget-2014-Auckland-Transport-package

A new graphic on the NZTA’s page for the project includes the claim that traffic heading northbound (presumably from SH18) will save 11 minutes in 12 years-time.

NZTA Northern Corridor map

Of all the projects the SH1 to SH18 motorway to motorway link is going to have a huge impact on the area as it will require large ramps to connect the motorways, like what is currently going in at Waterview. The image below was from an earlier strategic study into the project and highlights one of the potential options

package3-sh18

And as a reminder this is an image from August showing the motorway ramps under construction.

Waterview Ramps Aug 14

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20 comments

  1. Thos is utter money wasting rubbish. As a regular user of this area, the bothlenecks are not bad at all. The worst contributor on Upper Harbour Drive is the slip lane from Rosedale. Mixing merging traffic directly from a 50kmh area on to an 80kmh highway is madness. Signalise the left turn lane.

  2. A pity the Albany to Silverdale Bus Way was not on their Radar because of Residential growth in the Silver Dale area. That would require Auckland Council to build a bus Station at Silverdale End so lets hope Auckland Council does allow for that facility too.

    1. The Silverdale busway station will be part of the extension of NEX services with the new network next year. The only reason it doesn’t exist is a neighbouring land owner keeps fighting it in the environment court.

      1. And the current alteration to project budgets sees this drop below the line due to limited funding. Further rates rises anyone? And why can the existing services not travel via the Motorway off-peak in the interim to reduce the current travel time?

  3. As a firm supporter of the CRL and PT improvement I actually agree with finishing the SH18 and SH1 interchange. Its the last link after waterview then I see the motorway network as complete! Well, thats what I hope at least.

    1. Well, after that it is motorways between Onehunga and Otahuhu, motorways to the airport on both routes, motorways to Kumeu, next Waitemata Harbour Crossing… don’t you worry, they have lots of ideas.

      1. Problem is our country’s version of the Military-Industrial complex: the Highway-Sprawl complex. Whole sections of the economy and the bureaucracy are addicted to ever more, and the logic is circular and self-serving. And is making us all poorer.

  4. I call total bullshit on their claims of time savings.

    To get to this magic number in 12 years they first predict huge growth in vehicle numbers which then slows down current throughput, so that extra lanes and crazy overbuilt flyovers then can be shown to take throughput back up to current levels.

    Did they model [even with their questionable assumptions] what would happen to demand if the busway was extended and a similar service was put on SH18 linking west and north [see CFN]? Don’t be silly.

    We know how the existing little Busway reduced vehicle numbers over the bridge. But i guess that would be a disaster for the Highway/Sprawl complex, yet more proof that our agencies are charged with creating driving demand [and congestion] not reducing it.

    It is becoming increasingly clear that the ex-urban SHAs are there to justify overbuilding the motorways that are there to justify the continuation of massive monotonal and distant dormitry suburbs on freshly ruined countryside, that are those ex-urban SHAs… perfect egg and chicken business.

    1. Those time savings are derisory. $450m to gain less time than I spend buying my morning coffee on my way to work each day.

      Only someone with tarmac for brains would think that’s value for money.

    2. I like this bit from the NZTA document: “a seamless motorway to motorway connection along the Western Ring Route”.

      Oh really?

      Tell that to the drivers queuing at the SH20 – SH1 connection in Manukau.

      1. Well with this, Waterview, and Kirkbride Rd The Hon Steven Joyce will have achieved his aim to be able to drive [or be driven] from his lifestyle block north of Albany to Mangere Airport without ever having to give way to a fellow citizen again… how many billions are we paying for this again?

    3. Of course it’s bullshit. I use this interchange on a regular basis at varying times of the day. In the am peak, the SB on-ramp will be full of cars idling while they wait for their turn to get on SH1. NB is free flowing at this time of the day. Much east-west traffic stays on Constellation Drive and the volumes through there are determined by traffic lights further up the road. In the pm peak, the extended slip lane to get on the NB on-ramp is working well and once the Greville Rd 3 laning is completed, there will be little delay. This is a completely unneeded project.

    4. Well put……’the ex-urban SHAs are there to justify overbuilding the motorways that are there to justify the continuation of massive monotonal and distant dormitory suburbs on freshly ruined countryside’

      Having been out of Auckland, and the country for awhile, it was an eye-opening experience to see the massive development going on out the back of Orewa……along with the implication that this style of economic growth is one of the government’s legacy projects – their new New Zealand. It was interesting to note development of a virtually identical character to the north of Tauranga during a visit there a few months ago.

      Designer sub-divisions and big box retail sprawling forever, doesn’t matter as we are all going to be driving driver-less cars, so can theoretically at least charge-out all that commute time while pretending to be eco-friendly.

      The 2010 TVNZ show “This is not my life”, set in the fictional gated community of “Waimoana”….aka Omaha…. indeed incorporates elements of someone’s vision for New Zealand’s future.

  5. I dont get what else we need to prove for the busway to be priority #1? These changes seem pretty ‘nice to have’, currently you have an 80kph road with some traffic lights connecting up the ring road. Meanwhile, the hugely popular NEX crawls through traffic before/after hitting Constellation Station.

    1. Not just the busway, but Busways in general.

      Having made the startling discovery that dedicated public transport corridors work, we’ve decided that the best idea is to gift the North Shore it’s own CMJ.

      Tragic.

  6. Sometimes this site become fundamentalists. Auckland needs transports and that includes roads too. And just because the Northern busway extension isn’t prioritized due to ideological reasons doesn’t mean we should downplay the need for roads.
    SH18 is a type example of a road that shouldn’t have 3 traffic lights.

    These lights disrupts traffic, they increase congestion and they massively increase Co2 emissions. They serve no purpose and all i can see is negative effects from them. To build away with them is a step in the right direction for both drivers and residents in the area. Win/Win and if done right we might have the added advantage of not having every bus coming from west of SH1 stuck in 10-15 minutes of traffic jam before they can reach the busway.

    What I struggle to understand is why all our motorway to motorway connections needs to be such monstrosities?
    the engineers need some serious updates to their skills its like all they can do is build these awful monsters and its like they lack the ability to understand and project designs that is suitable, good looking and useful without maximising space.

    The continuation of the busway is a given and with the success it is, its difficult to understand why it isn’t first priority. However this is New Zealand and Im surprised that they even agreed to build it. Well we shouldn’t count on it just yet, Im sure the dinosaur league of countryside SUv driving, Lion red drinking, Holden liking National ministers will do their best to stop it. Why is National in anti good transport infrastructure?
    The tories have given rail more money than any other government, Boris is close to =bike and most European conservatives are very pro good transport infrastructure. Why is National here stuck thinking that 1980ies traffic solutions fixes 2020 problems?

    1. The amount of delay at the traffic lights is minimal. Certainly not worth spending anywhere near this kind of money on. And yes, i use this piece of road reguarly at both peak and off peak times. It’s a waste. Extend the bloody busway.

    2. Sean the massive overbuilding is the worst of it, but also it’s important not to get sucked in by the PR machine. Yes, less stopping and starting for any vehicle will speed their journey and reduce fuel use and emissions proportionately. But to say that these massive investments will lead to lower fuel use and lower emissions over all is clearly untrue. Because by investing instead in alternatives then many of these vehicles they imagine as reducing small increments of fuel and emissions just won’t be on the road at all, and therefore the saving is orders of magnitude greater.

      To build m’ways so massively that all journeys at all times on all routes can take place under LOS A conditions [ie 100kph or whatever the legal limit is] AND for as many vehicles as can be conceived could possibly ever be on the network at some distant future time, is simply to enable as much driving as possible, and therefore as much fuel use and pollution as possible. In short the best journey for these outcomes are any non-vechicle ones, especially non-single occupant ones. To be so expensively and massively ‘promoting’ single occupant vehicle use is a disaster for these outcomes [and others, health, urban form, balance of payments, etc]. especially while underinvesting in the alternatives

      And fine, they [the gov] do want to optimise SOV use, it is basically an article of faith for them that more of it is good, they identify with the lone driver in a vast SUV on an empty brand new freeway- this is their voter, as the previous minister told me. Alright-y; but just don’t pretend that it’s anything to do with saving the biosphere, using less fuel, saving all of us money, being more efficient, or making a better place to live in, improving the nation’s health, reducing the tax burden; because it’s not.

      Upgrade; but don’t supersize.

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