Tag: Drury

Mill Road – South End Concerns

·

Auckland Transport Preparing for Investigation

 

After the recent uproar over the proposal for the Redoubt Road and Mill Road (north end) widening, attention now switches to the southern end of the Mill Road Corridor Project with Auckland Transport preparing an investigation into it.

The Mill Road Corridor Project is essentially creating a 4-lane south-eastern bypass route from Redoubt Road, down Mill Road, through east Papakura before finally connecting at Drury near the motorway interchange. The purpose behind this bypass is to allow for growth in the East Takanini and Papakura area, as well as an alternative to the Southern Motorway between Manukau and Drury (currently congested in peak hour).

Currently owing to the congestion on that section of Southern Motorway, there is a lot of rat running along Redoubt Road and Mill Road as workers head south to head home.

From Papakura Courier

Mill Road decision looms 

DUBBY HENRY

 

Homeowners in “limbo” over the controversial Mill Rd corridor could soon find out if they’re in the firing line.

The contract to investigate the second stage of the highway goes to tender in August.

 

The arterial traffic route is an alternative to State Highway 1 and will link Manukau and Flat Bush to Drury and the southern motorway through Papakura.

Planners will pick up where the Papakura District Council left off its investigations in 2010 but the routes are far from finalised, Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan says.

 

The district council held meetings in 2009 with residents who were worried their houses could be bowled.

But it’s “too early to tell” if those same residents will still be in the path of development, Mr Hannan says.

 

The most likely route will head down Cosgrave Rd before doglegging around Cosgrove School and cutting through farmland to link with Dominion Rd, which is expected to be widened from two lanes to four.

…

The corridor is about 1.2km east to where I live and could cause rat running down the main road if people decide to use that as a bypass to Papakura or even the motorway via Elliot Street. The rat running would be a pain for myself trying to get to and from Papakura or the Papakura Train Station (until Glenora was built) so I am keeping an eye on this part of the corridor’s development.

From the Papakura Courier article again

After Dominion Rd the route will cut through Hunua Rd along several possible routes through Drury to get to the southern motorway, meaning residents around Waihoehoe and Fitzgerald roads could also see their properties affected.

…

I would see that part as the main feeder for the upcoming Drury South Industrial Park as trucks would use it to gain access to State Highway One

And he reckons it doesn’t make sense to create what will essentially be a second motorway on his street now the Government has announced it is to widen State Highway 1.

…

That would be true. Apart from maybe Hunua Road to State Highway One (so the southern most end) the rest of the project should probably be reviewed in light of the Southern Motorway upgrades.

Those upgrades which include the dogged Takanini Interchange should take a lot off pressure off that area. Putting the need for a 4-lane bypass back on the shelf and relieving some concerns for local residents. Sure Mill Road will need kerbing, intersection improvements, cycle lanes and maybe a bus lane or two but; not the full hog as we are seeing now.

The investigation is expected to take two years and there will be “full consultation” with residents, he says.

 

We all hold our collective breaths here folks

Related articles

The Clunker and an Unnecessary Road

·

The Weymouth Link – Is It Needed?

 

In short no!

 

I have commented on this with my “THE RURAL URBAN BOUNDARY – SOUTH END“” post last week – briefly recapping:

Personally I am in favour of the Draft Southern RUB Options – Corridor Focus (Page 4 of the embed) which contains primary urban development to Drury and Karaka (Core’s K and D), along the State Highway 22 and North Island Main Trunk Line rail corridor, the North East Pukekohe flank, and the Pukekohe South East flank. This option keeps the main development either near existing development or along a transit corridor making infrastructure provisions (Drury and Paerata Rail Stations) and access more easier than the other options such as those that include Karaka North and West. Per The Unitary Plan there is an option to retain a green belt between Pukekohe and Paerata which would provide a wildlife corridor as well as park space. While development is kept away from the highly valuable Pahurehure Inlet which according to the maps contains colonies of wading sea birds. In any case that area slated as Karaka North and West if need be can be converted either into lifestyle blocks with strict covenants or over time into a new regional park and green lung for the ever-growing Auckland (which is what I would prefer Council would do (like an Ambury Farm or Puhinui Reserve set up)).

I have also noted as potential transport link from Whangapouri to Weymouth via a new bridge over the inlet as well as talk of a new waste water treatment plant. With me preferring the corridor option thus Karaka West and North not being developed – but actually wanting to be flipped over to lifestyle blocks or even better a regional reserve I can not see the need for a transit link through that area connecting to Weymouth. That link would create a rat-run from State Highway 20 at the Cavendish Drive Interchange, down Roscommon and Weymouth Roads (Route 17), over the new bridge, down the new transit link and through to State Highway 22 just north of Paerata rather than containing it to State Highways 1 and 22. That kind of rat running would lower the amenity of the new Greenfield developments and do nothing to solve congestion issues. As for the waste water treatment plant, well with Karaka North and West no longer under development you can away plop the new plant there out of the urban road but near the potential outfall site.

 

Submission wise I am going to follow through and “recommend” to Auckland Council that the Corridor Option for the RUB being the preferred southern Greenfield development options, providing there is:

  • A green belt maintained between Pukekohe and Paerata

  • New waste water treatment plant is built

  • That transit link over the Inlet is not built

  • What was labelled Karaka North and West either be allowed to be converted to Lifestyle blocks or even better a regional reserve seeming wading birds live in those areas

  • And that Auckland Transport will build the Drury and Paerata Mass Transit Interchanges (rail and bus station, and park and ride)

 

But in this post I am going to open the floor to Manurewa Local Board Chair Angela Dalton with her Manurewa Action Team through her Scrid document:

 

Attribution to Angela Dalton – Chair of the Manurewa Local Board

 

And yes I am trundling along to the Weymouth Community Meeting tonight at 6:30pm discussing the Weymouth