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Hearings Begin on Warkworth Section of Holiday Highway
The Herald has noted that the Board of Enquiry gets under way today for the Puhoi-Warkworth section of the Puhoi-Welsford Roads of National Significance Program otherwise known as the Holiday Highway.
Fast-tracking of $760m extension to be considered over 14 days.
Plans for one of the country’s most expensive transport projects – a $760 million extension of Auckland’s motorway network to Warkworth – go under the microscope today.
A board of inquiry appointed for fast-tracking planning consideration of the 18.5km extension as the first half of a Road of National Significance will preside over 14 days of hearings.
The Government is promoting the extension over 12 viaducts and bridges from the Johnstones Hill traffic tunnels south of Puhoi to a new roundabout north of Warkworth, as a vital freight and tourism link with Northland.
Even so, many of the 14,000 vehicles a day expected to use the new road by 2026 will double back to Warkworth’s often bottlenecked Hill St turnoff to eastern beaches.
That keeps critics such as Auckland Council infrastructure chairman Mike Lee calling it “the holiday highway” to the intense annoyance of Northland leaders and former Rodney mayor Penny Webster.
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There will only be one traffic interchange between Orewa and Warkworth, to be confined to just south-facing ramps at Puhoi, after residents protested against an earlier plan which would have denied them access.
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So you will need to double back and still get held up at the notorious Hill Road intersection at Warkworth in order to get to the eastern beaches. That in itself is rather self-defeating.
In any case the Holiday Highway even if fully completed as the gold-plated 4-lane motorway would still fall well short of where it would need to be if it were to serve the population and industrial centres of Northland. You would need to take the motorway all the way to Whangarei itself to get the “benefits” you would be sort after – much like the 4-lane expressway Auckland to Hamilton and Cambridge.
Ironically there has been two more cheaper but more beneficial transport schemes to connect Auckland up to Northland than the Holiday Highway. One is Operation Lifesaver devised by Transport Blog, the other is to fully upgrade the North Auckland (rail) Line from Swanson to Whangarei with a branch line to Marsden Point (home of a deep water port and our oil refinery) to allow our more powerful DL’s to haul longer trains from the area south (like logs).
You can read about Operation Lifesaver as an alternative to the Holiday Highway HERE.
Operation Lifesaver I believe follows the same premise as the upgrades to State Highway 2 that have happened and are going to continue to happen again soon. You can read what NZTA has done and what it will be up to with State Highway 2 here: Safety Improvements for State Highway 2. Once the upgrades are complete that section of State Highway 2 (which carries more regular, holiday and freight traffic than the Holiday Highway ever would) will allow that traffic to travel efficiently and safely to their destinations. So if these kind of simple upgrades to a much busier State Highway 2 are effective why does State Highway 1 going north need to be a 4-lane Motorway that does not really go the distance it would need to? And these upgrades to State Highway 2 are very similar to what Operation Lifesaver proposes.
Lets hope this Board of Inquiry puts the Holiday Highway under the same intense microscope as it did to a Wellington Highway project last month. And cross fingers the Board of Inquiry might start shifting us away from this motorway to something more viable that will not break the bank…
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NZTA Continues safety improvements on State Highway 2
Having traversed the highway many times in my life I can safely say State Highway 2 between State Highway One at Pokeno and the SH2/25 Thames turn off can be both a dog and unsafe. NZTA having done the Mangatawhiri Deviation back in 2008 (which makes that section of highway easier and safer to travel on) are continuing to push for further safety improvements along this particular section of highway corridor.
31 Mar 2014 11:39am | NZ Transport Agency: Waikato and Bay of Plenty
Safety improvements being investigated on SH2 between Pokeno to Mangatarata
Known as the Safe System Corridor Project the Transport Agency says the investigation aims to identify what safety improvements are required along this section of SH2 to reduce the number of serious and fatal crashes caused by head-on and run-off-road impact, and to make the intersections safer.
Two sections of SH2 are being investigated – known as the Western and Eastern sections – in the last 10 years there have seen 214 crashes in these two sections. Fifteen of those were fatal, and 16 involved serious injuries. Most of the fatal and serious crashes were caused by vehicles crossing the centreline or running off the road.
The 7.4km Western Section is from the SH1 intersection at Pokeno to the Mangatawhiri Stream Bridge. The Eastern Section is 9.5km long and runs from Monument Road to the intersection with SH25.
“The project aims to save lives and reduce the severity of injuries by creating a more forgiving environment,’’ says Transport Agency’s acting highways manager Michelle Te Wharau.
In December 2011 the speed limit was reduced from 100km/h to 90km/h for much of the Maramarua Highway up to the SH25 turnoff. Average daily traffic counts are around 13,000 and soar to 24,000 at peak holiday times.
The key objectives for this Safe System project are to:
Enhance the safety and wellbeing for the local community and residents who live and travel along this route
Acknowledge that people can make mistakes while driving, are vulnerable in crashes and need a more forgiving environment
Reduce the number of fatal and serious injury road crashes, particularly head-on, run-off road, and intersection crashes
Maintain SH2 as a route for over-dimension and over-load heavy vehicle travel
Develop and implement affordable solutions
“The project teams have just begun their work and will seek feedback from stakeholders and the people who live, work and travel along SH2,” says Mrs Te Wharau.
“As more detailed options are developed we will seek direct feedback from any affected residents and landowners.”
A public Open Day will be held towards the end of May/early June this year, says Mrs Te Wharau.
“Also along the Maramarua Highway, the Transport Agency aims to begin construction of a three-leg roundabout at the intersection of SH2/25 later this year.”
Also other works as part of this project include the realignment of SH2 at Kopuku which is in investigation stage and the Maramarua Deviation is in design stage. Investigation for passing lanes at Mangatarata is also nearing completion.
For further information about this project go to www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/maramaruahighway. Attached is a map of the SH2 highway being investigated as part of this project and what safety improvements have been undertaken in the past.
Of note I believe this is not part of the Roads of National Significance yet carries a heck load of passenger and freight traffic between Thames, Tauranga and Auckland. I also believe this section of SH2 carries more traffic than the Holiday Highway ever would yet the Holiday Highway is a gold-plated 4 lane motorway compared to a two or three lane highway down in the Northern Waikato. If a 4-lane highway was ever needed I thought it would have been State Highway Two at Maramaura than at Puhoi. All Puhoi needs is the same stuff happening on State Highway 2 in being some deviations (including bypasses), some median barriers, some passing bays and some improved intersections. Simple, cost effective and yet gives more benefits than a 4-lane motorway.
I also note this part of State Highway Two forms part of the backbone of State Highways (1, 2, 27, 29) that connect up the Golden Triangle (Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga)
Wonders never cease with our Government and transport. That said I wonder what this big announcement is by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Transport tomorrow at Britomart (after 12 of course) will be? We await and see.
Talking Southern Auckland 