More Northwest Motorway Widening

A lot of focus on the ‘Western Ring Route’ in recent times has centred on the Waterview Connection project and to a lesser extent the SH20 Manukau Connection project. Sneaking under the radar have been two further sections of the Western Ring Route that are also supposedly necessary to finally ‘complete’ this motorway project: one from Henderson Creek to Huruhuru Road Bridge and another from the Huruhuru Road Bridge to Westgate.

The Northwest Motorway between Te Atatu and Westgate is currently four lanes wide: two in each direction. The two projects above, which essentially can be linked together to form one single project, will basically widen the motorway to three lanes each way as well as upgrading the Lincoln Road interchange. It’s somewhat difficult to work out the cost of these two projects, but they form part of a general widening of SH16 between Westgate and St Lukes that in total will cost more than $800 million.

A plan of the Henderson Creek to Huruhuru Road bridge section is shown below. It basically is the Lincoln Road interchange and surrounding areas:

Most of the works can be undertaken within the existing designation, which means that unfortunately the public can’t have too much of a say on this proposal. What is interesting to note is that NZTA are only proposing to construct bus shoulder lanes along here, even though the Regional Land Transport Strategy and the Regional Public Transport Plan have designated SH16 between Lincoln Road and Westgate to be part of the “Rapid Transit Network”. NZTA managed to sneak out of providing a Northwest Busway along the SH16 sections of the Waterview Connection project by arguing that it was only part of the “Quality Transit Network” (and that busways were only required along the RTN) – so it’s bizarre that they have now ignored their own previous advice and are not providing a busway west of Lincoln Road.

Here’s what NZTA State Highways Manager for the Auckland Region Tommy Parker had to say about busways, shoulder bus lanes, RTNs and QTNs when it came to the Waterview Connection project:
It seems weird for NZTA to say that they won’t build a busway along the St Lukes to Te Atatu part of SH16 because it’s not classified as an RTN, but then still refuse to build a busway along the Lincoln Road to Westgate section of SH16: even though that is classified as an RTN.

The Huruhuru Road bridge to Westgate section is quite a bit longer than the Henderson Creek to Huruhuru part, but generally looks like what’s shown in the plan below. There are three lanes each way and bus shoulder lanes. Even though this section of SH16 is part of the RTN, the bus shoulder lanes end at the Royal Road on and off ramps, forcing bus traffic to merge back in with general traffic: defeating the whole purpose of the RTN which is to offer a completely grade separated alignment that isn’t affected by congestion.

The RLTS and the RPTP clearly show SH16 being part of the “possible future RTN”, whatever that happens to mean. This is outlined in the map below: And a close up of the area in question:
That is most definitely a red dashed line running along SH16 between Lincoln Road and Westgate – so most definitely this part of SH16 is part of the RTN, rather than the QTN (which is the remainder of SH16 to the east).

I do have to say that it would be a bit weird to build a busway between Westgate and Lincoln Road, and then a lower standard bus shoulders between Lincoln Road and Pt Chevalier. As far as I know, very few buses at all use SH16 between Westgate and Lincoln Road at the moment – particularly when compared to the number of buses that use SH16 between Te Atatu and Pt Chevalier. However, there is a kind of “chicken and egg” situation here: the bus services linking Henderson and Albany take so long that hardly anyone uses them, meaning that only low frequencies can be supported, which as a result means that even fewer people catch the bus as not only does it take forever, you can also find yourself waiting forever.

Building this section of busway would make the trip faster (thereby encouraging more passengers) and also have other benefits – like enabling a pretty decent Westgate to downtown express service via SH16 and Great North Road between Pt Chevalier and the city. The busway could include stations at Westgate, Royal Road and Lincoln Road: with some buses at Lincoln Road branching off to Henderson and others continuing to the city via the bus shoulder lanes along SH16 and then via Great North Road. It would be a useful first step towards and eventual completed Northwest Busway – the busway that Tommy Parker says above has not been compromised by the design of the Waterview Connection project.

But perhaps the most important part of getting the busway built would be the principle: if NZTA are upgrading a route that is classified as an RTN, then they must build a full standard busway. Over time, hopefully more routes will become RTNs (I don’t buy the argument that a Northwest Busway would compete against the Western Railway Line, they serve two distinct parts of West Auckland) and there will be a strong precedent that NZTA cannot simply ignore the RTN classification – they have to build a proper high-standard busway.

You have the opportunity to submit on this proposal – asking NZTA to build a busway here rather than just bus shoulder lanes. Make your submission here and make sure you say that you are submitting on both the Henderson Creek to Huruhuru Road Bridge section of the motorway and the Huruhuru Road Bridge to Westgate section.

I will try to put together a ‘model submission’ in the next few days to make things easier.