I have made many posts on the Waterview Connection over the past few months, so my position is hopefully fairly well known. Firstly I think it’s a waste of money to spend $1.4 billion on a new road when traffic levels are currently falling on the state highway network and the effects of peak oil are likely to continue this process in the future. Secondly, if it is to be built then I think the government has done a pretty shoddy job in consulting with the local community – or more to the point going back on six years of consultation with the local community that led to the full tunnel option being chosen as the most acceptable. However, if we put all that to one side, I still think that it’s important I provide my opinion on how the current option can have its environmental effects best mitigated. Or said another way – how can we make the best of a bad situation?
About a week ago I looked at possible mitigation options for what the motorway is doing to Allan Wood Reserve – in particular how much extra it might cost to bore a tunnel underneath the reserve. I will continue to look at ways in which the effects of the motorway on Allan Wood Reserve can be minimised, but for now I want to look at the other end of the project, around Waterview. In particular, how the effects of the motorway on Great North Road can be mitigated. The current proposal is to run the motorway directly underneath Great North Road, along most of the ‘Waterview straight’. In the long-run this is a pretty good solution as if you’re in the area you’ll have no idea the motorway is directly under the road you’re driving along. However, the process of constructing a six lane motorway underneath one of Auckland’s busiest arterial routes is going to be a bit of a nightmare I imagine – and as compensation/mitigation for the adverse traffic, noise and other effects of the construction process, I consider it is reasonable for the local community to request that Great North Road is enhanced to some sort of “boulevard” once works are complete.
The Avondale Community Board has gone a step further and come up with some great ideas and renders for how Great North Road could be rebuilt to provide a better quality landscape and also to provide for bus lanes – pretty critical along such a busy arterial route. There are some difficult to decipher cross-sections on page 12 of their presentation, but from page 13 onwards we see, through the use of some excellent renders, what the different options for Great North Road could be.
To start with, here’s a render of what the current road layout is – at the corner of Great North Road and Alford Street. The road is four lanes wide, with a central median but no on-street parking on either side. There are no bus lanes along it, although in the bottom right hand corner you can see an indented bus bay. This road is pretty much at capacity, and an interesting (if slightly ironic) quirk of the proposed Waterview Connection is that it will have absolutely no impact on the traffic levels along this stretch of Great North Road – unless some sort of central interchange is built. Therefore, if the road is simply returned to its current state after the Waterview Connection is complete there will be no opportunity to put bus lanes along this stretch of road – as the road already carries so many cars it would be impossible for them to all squeeze into one lane so that the other could be freed up as a bus only lane.
See – I don’t always advocate for the reallocation of road space to public transport at any cost! I am quite curious whether property that directly front Great North Road, along its western side, will need to be taken, but it does seem from the renders as though this might be the case.
As I have detailed above, I don’t think it’s acceptable for NZTA to simply reinstate the road as it is currently. People who live in this area will have to put up with at least 2-3 years of significant disruption while the motorway is being built underneath Great North Road yet at the same time they will not really get any benefit from the Waterview Connection project, as traffic volumes are not expected to decline. Therefore, I think it is very justifiable for residents to demand a higher standard of road be reinstated – and some options are outlined below.
The first image shown to the left here shows how a basic upgrade to allow bus lanes and some landscaping could work. The road still only has four lanes of traffic, but the median has been planted up a bit to make it nicer. Judging by the road markings, one lane each way has been taken away from general traffic (at least during peak hour I imagine) for use as a bus lane. Although oddly enough I do not that in the distance it seems as though there are cars driving in the bus lane – $150 fine for them I suppose! As outlined above, I don’t actually think this option is practical. The Waterview Connection will not reduce the peak hour traffic flows along this stretch of Great North Road, so therefore all the existing roadspace will still be required. Perhaps through giving great priority to buses one could end up with a mode-shift from cars to public transport, but in this case I just don’t think it’s practical to take two lanes of general traffic away from this part of Great North Road.
This option would potentially have one of the better outcomes from an urban design perspective, as the road is still only four lanes wide yet we also have a planted up median. While I do think it’s somewhat impractical to have bus lanes and only two lanes of general traffic, I am very glad that no option is being put forward that does not include bus lanes.
The second option, shown in the lower image to the left, adds a couple of lanes onto the existing road layout – as bus lanes. This gets around the problem outlined above, as there are still four lanes set aside for general traffic. In effect, you end up with a similar situation to what happens along Great South Road through Greenlane, where there are four lanes of general traffic and two lanes that alternate between being bus lanes and being set aside for on-road parking. I don’t know whether the bus lanes shown here (note that there are still cars in them in the distance!) would revert to on-street parking during non-peak hours, but it’s possible. The down side of this option is that it creates a six lane wide arterial road with nothing but a painted median down the middle. It’s a pretty poor urban design solution in my opinion – creating one heck of a wide road and probably encouraging cars to speed along it. So perhaps not the best outcome for local residents.
For urban design reasons, and also because I think such a wide road would encourage speeding, I don’t think that this option is a particularly good one. I don’t think that what has been built on Great South Road in Greenlane is a great outcome as the road is simply too wide. Some sort of landscaped median is a damn good idea to break up the road and hopefully to slow traffic down a little bit.
The next option is a slight variation on what I discussed above, as we still have the six lanes of traffic (two bus lanes) but instead of simply having a painted median we see the centre of the road being landscaped and planted up. This would definitely be a better outcome for the community from an urban design perspective, and would return some sense of “green-ness” to what is still a pretty damn wide road. By planting out the centre median the road would be broken into two from a visual perspective, so wouldn’t appear quite so wide and unwelcoming. I guess on the down side having a solid median makes it more difficult to right-turn in and out of properties, but this road is so busy anyway at most hours of the day that I think people are pretty crazy trying to do that anyway. In fact, removing the ability of people to turn right in and out of properties might actually create some significant safety benefits. So, from that perspective I think this is definitely the pick of the bunch out of the options I’ve looked at so far. The image below provides an interesting cross-section of how the road and the motorway underneath it would look:
What is interesting here is how the motorway creates a significant corridor for Great North Road, sitting above it, can work within. Anything to the side of Great North Road that would be affected by the road widening will have to go anyway to construct the motorway, so there’s no real disadvantage in taking the opportunity to create bus lanes in my opinion. There is the potential for things to go one step further and have the bus lanes as a sort of “slip lane” that is divided off from the two main traffic lanes by another grassy median. This would truly create a boulevard feel for Great North Road and should be explored further.
Finally, while I did say that I was going to focus on the Waterview end, there is an interesting sketch of what Allan Wood Reserve could look like – plus how ramps to New North Road could potentially work. I think it’s fairly obvious the ramps are a bad idea, and the image below shows that quite clearly. In the case of the sketch to the bottom right, it looks pretty cool, although perhaps my judgement is being clouded by seeing an electrified railway line being shown!
Anyway, it is certainly encouraging to see that council is doing some work in ensuring that the community gets maximum mitigation out of this project. Whilst I still think it’s a waste of money that could instead be spend on Auckland’s CBD rail loop, if it has to be done then I certainly support ensuring the community gets screwed over as little as possible. We may be on the right track to ensuring that is the case.
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Thanks for publicising those renderings. It’s good to see the community board’s hard work.
As a cyclist who travels this stretch every day, I have indulged in a few hopeful speculations about the facilities we may end up with. The lanes are comfortably wide at present, but the existing shared-use path is rather haphazard. Recent plans for cycleway improvements were knocked back, probably because it was too expensive to do anything half-decent, and the road featured as a high concern in the Regional Arterial Road Plan (iirc) due to its volume of cars, buses, and cyclists.
I too find it hard to imagine how they will manage traffic while construction is underway. Perhaps it’ll be better to squeeze through the narrow lanes of New North Rd, and drop to the NW cycleway near Motat.
From a cyclist’s perspective I certainly hope that this project includes a link-up between the cycleway that runs along the SH20 Mt Roskill corridor and the existing Northwest cycleway.
Regarding “how will they build it?”, the answer I think is half the tunnel at a time, and shift the road onto the other half. It will be pretty narrow during construction though – so no median I imagine.
I can’t see how the 1st option is unachievable like you say. People will be so affected by the road that they could possible switch to other forms of transportation such as bus, rail, walking and cycling (people may also stop driving their car!). They wont know what to do with a 4 lane road with bus lanes along this route after construction. However a bus lane along this route with quality bus shelters is a must, as well as planting to protect waterways and to create a greener environment need to be included in the works.
I hope that the NZTA will be proactive in minimizing the effect on the community. One way the NZTA can minimize disruption to this area is by providing discounted fares for those using public transport services, encouraging people to avoid their cars on this stretch of road during construction. This could be one way of minimizing the effects to the community.
Brent, you know how much of a fan I am for public transport over private vehicles. However this is simply not a route where one can chop two lanes of general traffic. The Waterview Connection will not reduce traffic along Great North Road, so unfortunately I just can’t see cutting it back to 2 lanes + 2 bus lanes as feasible.
Too much of West Auckland is linked with the motorway system via this stretch of road.
Interesting point about the railway line, I had always assumed that if/when it was built it would just be run at surface level the whole way. I assume the sketch above is just the artist impression, but I do wonder if it is feasible to run the railway in the tunnel for that section given that it would need to pass over the motorway but under New North Road. I guess that depends on how steeply the road lanes dive after the portal.
It would be nice, but I can’t see NZTA building a cut and cover twin track rail tunnel and modifying their road tunnel design for a link that isn’t even firmly planned, let alone funded.
Actually on second thoughs it would only be the westbound leg of the rail interchange that would pass over the motorway, so it might be a bit more realistic.
I think it’s exciting just to see the railway line actually shown! The “Tunnel With Open Space Options” image is actually quite an old one, and shows a pre-2006 option. That’s why the motorway curves to the right, while the current proposal goes straight ahead.
Although I am not familiar with the details of the Waterview connection I can understand the issues faced by local residents. I am pleased to see PT offered in the discussions for alternative plans but I see nothing about walking or cycling. Is this an oversight? Are cars and buses the only options?
Here is a challenge: Go to Google Earth and trace a line from the Allan Wood entrance and go to the Waterview Motorway interchange. You will see that only a small tunnel under the New North rd is needed., the rest can go through open country with few houses affected, and only one large building at the CIT. It has been mentioned that there is a lot of fill, so that is why they rejected that option. Why cannot it be “unfilled”? OK, Oakley creek will be done in, but this would be the price of progress.
By the way, I use and enjoy the Oakley Creek walkway.
You’re a bit late to the party buddy. They’re about to start digging the tunnel.
And CIT, geez Unitec stopped being called that in about 1990.
Motorways destroy communities. That “open country” of which you’re so dismissive is public land used for recreation, as well as protection of native species,, and consuming it for a motorway would bisect the Waterview and Mt Albert communities on top of taking away a recreational facility and native wetland area. All in the name of moving cars. Pardon my French, but fuck that!