Another decent sized transport project is about to be started near New Lynn. In just over a weeks time work will start on upgrading and widening Tiverton And Wolverton Sts between Clark St and the intersection of New Windsor Rd and Maioro St. Auckland Transport say that on average, over 31,000 vehicles use the route each day so its definitely pretty busy. The project will cost about $30m and includes improvements for all modes of transport so is something that I support. Here is what is is being done:
- Creating four lanes (two in each direction) from Clark Street East to the intersection of New Windsor Road and Maioro Street
- Installing traffic signals at five major intersections to improve traffic flow and provide safe crossing points:
- Taylor Street/Wolverton Street
- St George Street/Wolverton Street
- Blockhouse Bay Road/Tiverton Road/Wolverton Street
- Whitney Street/Tiverton Road
- Tiverton Road/New Windsor Road
- Improving pedestrian safety by upgrading the existing footpaths to 2.5 metres on the north side and 1.8 metres on the south side and installing four new pedestrian islands and new pram crossings
- Undergrounding and renewing Vector power and Telecom services
- Upgrading stormwater catchpits and pipe infrastructure to reduce incidences of localised flooding and cater for the demands of future population growth
- Installing 10 new bus shelters along the route
- Upgrading street lighting to the standard expected of a major arterial route
- Landscaping work
A cycle route that allows cyclists to avoid the busy Tiverton-Wolverton corridor will be constructed separately to the main roading contract. It will be implemented along Miranda Street, Margate Road, Mulgan Street and New Windsor Road, linking with the New Lynn SH20 cycle route at Maioro Street, and is expected to be in place by the end of 2012
The route being upgraded
An impression of how Tiverton will eventually look (facing east towards New Windsor Rd)
The new cycle route also being constructed
Projects like this highlight the benefit in improving local roads compared to throwing hundreds of millions at state highways, many of which carry only a fraction of the traffic. For more info see the AT page for the project.
No bus lanes? Is the route part of the QTN or to have frequent buses along it in the future? If so it’s a shame the upgrade doesn’t provide any bus priority.
Having a look at google maps or the maxx timetable, the services really aren’t frequent enough to qualify for bus lanes.
If it were to have more frequent buses in the future a bit of green paint and some signs can’t cost that much, as I assume the main cost here is with widening and landscaping etc..
Yeah I agree that it’s probably not justifiable now, but in the future I was wondering whether it might be justifiable. I guess then we come down to the question of whether it should be a single vehicle lane plus bus lane or two vehicle lanes plus bus lane, in which case you are building a six lane monstrosity of a road.
You would really struggle to get six lanes in, even Great North Road doesn’t have that many. I think the width allocated to tar seal is plenty for the short, medium and probably long terms.
This project will be a complete horror story for those of us faced with up to two years of disruption to our businesses. The Lansford Crescent industrial area has no alternative access. We will lose customers while the traffic delays force people to find alternate routes. Many of the dozens of businesses in the area are really struggling at the moment, and this will undoubtedly be the final blow for some of them.
The lengthy reconstruction of Clark St has shown us what we are in for. Ask any of the business owners along there what it was like.
Even now, we all avoid using Clark St if possible, because of the lengthy delays caused by the dozen or so new, incredibly inefficient traffic lights which have been installed in the area. It’s much faster to take a long detour around it. When the whole project is finished, the five new sets of traffic lights in the new “upgrade” will only add to our problems, every single trip in and out. We won’t be able to avoid sitting and waiting at empty intersections for the lights to change.
Just two and a half minutes extra each way, every working day, adds up to 20 hours – half a working week – every year. For most road users, the waste of time at Auckland traffic lights is many times more than that.
Imagine if we could get Auckland’s lights working properly and save the whole city that much time!
And like the redeveloped Clark Street, I suspect that it will be an absolute horror zone for pedestrians. I’ve noticed that because the pedestrian cycle takes so long at any of the new traffic lights along Clark Street you get people ignoring them completely. This is particularly noticeable with students exiting the train station who cross the road directly, using the central planter strips as refuges from passing cars. Clark Street, no matter how pretty it looked on paper, was designed to prioritise vehicular traffic and, apparently, to discourage pedestrians/cyclists. This has left the train/bus interchange as a sort of island in a sea of vehicular traffic, which also serves to disconnect the mall from what’s left of the old shopping/community facilities precinct.
That’s exactly how it looked on paper as well. There’s an underlying problem with transport planners and engineers thinking that the unit of travel is a vehicle rather than a person. Pedestrians simply don’t compute.
It will be definitely quicker to by pass this section of road. Between NL and Maoro you are looking at at least 12 sets of lights. Better to take the locals streets or even GN Rd.
Since when do traffic lights improve flow, aren’t they just an impediment to the main traffic flow. Also how is a pram crossing any different to an ordinary pedestrian crossing? Are there baby protecting barriers or something?
Effectively these roads are a motorway in slow motion, I feel sorry for the people living right along them. It would be great if there was a buffer zone (a strip of parks, green spaces) between main arterial routes and neighbouring houses, it would make it so much more livable for them.
Correct, traffic signals interrupt the flow of the main road. In the case of Clark St, significantly. But it has gotten worse for pedestrians. It seems like they have dramatically improved the phasing on Clark street to the detriment of the side roads. I was there they other day and saw green lights all the way down clark st, and no cars!
If the phasing on Clark St has improved it is very new. You always stop. And stop. And stop. And stop again…
It has been on the cards for around ten years, it’s actually the fact Auckland City Council prevaricated over it for so long that has been the problem. It’s always been a high value project and should have been completed when the Mt Roskill extension was opened.