NZTA have made a pretty well put together animation of what the Western Ring Route upgrade will look like when completed, which includes the $1.4 billion Waterview Connection.
A few thoughts come to mind:
- There’s certainly not going to be much left of Allan Wood Reserve once the motorway goes through it (this is largely shown in the first minute).
- The interchange between SH20 and SH16 at Waterview will be completely massive.
- SH16 looks incredibly wide (not surprising as it’s going to be nine lanes wide for some of its length.)
I do think that the tunnel and completion of the WRR is needed so I’m not that concerned about this although I do agree that 9 lanes does seem excessive and I would much rather see a proper busway down the side of middle of SH16
I just wish they would put in the rail line from Avondale at the same time, at least as a branch to Hillsborough Rd until we work out how to get it to Onehunga. It would probably be about 30 mins to town from a station at Dominion Rd which according to MAXX is faster than a bus. I know we probably need the CBD tunnel first so we have the capacity but perhaps we need to take a leaf out of the motorway book, build lots of lines half the way then claim there is missing link that HAS to be finished or there will be some kind of transport armageddon.
They could make the Waterview interchange footprint a lot smaller by getting rid of the large existing cloverleaf ramp from Great North Road onto SH16 eastbound. Cloverleafs like this are a huge waste of space and aren’t even used on new freeways in North America anymore as they represent poor urban design and don’t work well in terms of traffic merging.
It basically islands a large area of green space on the north side of SH16 that could be used by local residents. What they should be doing is getting rid of the cloverleaf and building a small new ramp from Great North Road directly onto SH16, maybe linking with the SH20 to SH16 eastbound motorway ramp. Then you could move the SH16 eastbound to Great North Road off ramp closer to the motorway. It is a shame this isn’t being looked at, as this would be a pretty good time to do it.
Where did the rail corridor go?
Its still there, you can see the space left for it under the bridges etc, it just pales in comparison to the width of the motorway. One of the biggest positives with the existing extension to SH20 and the planned one is that when we decide to build the rail line through there the bridges are already designed for it to pass underneath which means there won’t be as much expensive rebuilding of things, at least from Avondale to Hillsborough Rd. Getting from Hillsborough Rd to Onehunga will be the really costly part.
Hoorah! If the details are correct, there is going to be a separate bridge for cyclists over the Whau river near the Te Atatu interchange.
This is currently a single file section of the bikeway that mars an otherwise superb route. Very frustrating for cyclists who have to stop to get past each other.
Yeah my understanding is that a completely new cycling bridge will be constructed and it will be built to a good standard.
I fail to see the point of this motorway, unless I’m mistaken in that it is truly a national priority to move people between Henderson and Manukau more quickly. It obviously pains transport planners to see an “unfinished network” (an unclosed, coloured circle on a map), but the argument for this expense to shuttle people back and forth between western suburbs is lacking. Simply not needed.
Hm it looks like the direct link between Sandringham Rd and Maioro St will be blown away. It’ll be back to a right-then-left turn. Also the number of lanes on SH16 is pretty awful.
And when you talk to someone about Spaghetti Junction, they’ll now ask you “which one?” –
WaterviewMotorwayview looks horrendous.I am however impressed at the amount of cycling infrastructure going in.
Does anybody know if any meaningful preparation for the rail line through this route is included in the motorway work? I was speaking to an architect who is working on this who said that Ontrack show very little interest in what is going on. Would the line, for example, go under New North rd just prior to joining the Western Line? How would those grades work? And how would that fit around the road tunnels? Incidently it seems crazy to me to put in all the electrification infrastructure along this section of the Western when clearly the line needs trenching to get under Woodward Ave and a proper integrated, and lower station is needed at Mt Albert; great opportunity for urban renewal…. on anyone’s radar? What’s Mark Ford thinking?
Patrick, yes the route is being adequately protected. The corridor is generally on the northeastern side of the motorway alignment between the Maioro Street Interchange and the southern tunnel portal in the Alan Wood Reserve. At the southern portal, the design allows for the rail line to cross over the tunnel and then connect to the North Auckland Rail Line, as per the design in the existing rail designation.
The motorway will run alongside the rail designation, if you look at the existing extension to SH20 you will see that the bridges have all been designed with space under them for the rail corridor. In this video you can see the same thing with the new structures proposed so it should be pretty easy to put the line in through these parts. They will just need to do the necessarily formation earth works and track construction. The reason Kiwirail aren’t considering doing any work at the same time is that there is no funding to build the SAL line and the limited funds they have need to go into maintenance and the freight business. Also there is going to be a huge cost to get the line from Hillsborough Rd to Onehunga and that part hasn’t been decided yet (the old designation isn’t ideal anymore)
As for Woodward Ave, if it was ever grade separated (I hope it is) then electrification shouldn’t really hinder it that much. It would probably be just a case of dropping it by 1-2m and building an overbridge, on the eastern side of the tracks the ground rises up to Gt North Rd so isn’t much of a problem and on the western side there would probably only be one or two houses affected and there is bound to be an easy enough way to deal with those.
At Mt Albert, the tracks are already below the road level of New North Rd so could easily be built over to create a space above the station with the station itself effectively underground without much work needed on the rail corridor. Neither of these issues are anywhere near big enough to consider stopping electrification of the western line when the majority of the patronage comes from west of these locations.
As for Mark Ford, he hasn’t even started in the job at AT yet and waiting for these sorts of decisions could delay electrification for years as they aren’t a priority or a road block.