The curious case of the Victoria Park Tunnel
The Victoria Park Tunnel (VPT) project makes a lot of sense in theory. It does address a tight point in Auckland’s motorway network – significantly boosting capacity for southbound traffic heading towards Auckland’s city centre and connections with SH16 heading west and heading towards the port.…
13 Comments Two bits of motorway news
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.…
“Locking in” Vic Park Tunnel’s benefits
The additional southbound lanes over the Victoria Park Viaduct, made possible through the construction of the Victoria Park Tunnel, open to vehicles today. John Roughan’s NZ Herald editorial can barely contain his excitement at this prospect, largely because (he hopes) it will get rid of queue jumpers holding up traffic through St Mary’s Bay.…
Victoria Park viaduct – southbound changes from Monday
Changes to the lane layout of the Victoria Park viaduct will be happening on Monday – finally enabling the use of the entire viaduct for southbound traffic. This has the potential to provide the biggest increase in capacity from the whole project, adding two southbound lanes and (hopefully) putting an end to the significant delays experienced by southbound traffic in the morning peak most particularly.…
Victoria Park flyover changes this week
The NZ Herald reports that final tweaks are being made to the Victoria Park flyover this week, to enable from next Monday its use for four lanes of southbound traffic.
Drivers are being urged to be on their guard around works associated with Auckland’s Victoria Park $406 million motorway tunnel project, which will involve road closures in coming days.…
Wellington Street onramp to stay closed?
There was an interesting media release from NZTA today about the Wellington Street onramp, which has stayed closed since the opening of the Victoria Park Tunnel on Monday last week.
The NZ Transport Agency has deferred a decision on re-opening Auckland’s Wellington Street on-ramp until after the Victoria Park Tunnel Project is completed next year.…
Vic Park Tunnel – causing traffic jams
It’s tempting to be amused by the various stories that have emerged this week about the new Victoria Park Tunnel causing huge congestion. The obvious amusing argument to make is that, just like we saw with the opening of the SH20-SH1 Manukau Connection, the opening of a motorway has just shifted the congestion or – in this case – actually created an even worse problem than we used to have.…
Walk the Victoria Park Tunnel
On November 7th the Victoria Park Tunnel will open to traffic – somewhat ironically (given how many motorway projects were built ‘for the Rugby World Cup’) just a few days after a certain tournament finishes. A week before the tunnel opens to traffic though, there will be the ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to walk through it, on October 29th.…
RoNS Videos
There were some videos from the NZTA that admin posted around the beginning of the year looking at the Puhoi to Wellsford RoNS and there was also a video of the Waterview Connection that was posted last year. Looking around online it appears there are a few more for other RoNS projects that were released.…
NZTA’s sound barrier double-standards
One welcome improvement to the way NZTA builds motorways over the past few years is the addition of sound barriers. I’ve spent quite a while wandering around Greenlane (delivering leaflets about the Project Greenlane upgrade a few years back) and one thing you really notice when you’re walking near houses located close to the southern motorway is just how damn noisy it is.…
Processing...