Ask Phoebe: Major Panmure roadworks should improve traffic flows

A road bridge is being built across Auckland's eastern railway line to replace the Mountain Rd bridge. Photo / Thinkstock

There are signs now in place on Ireland Rd (Panmure) and on the Southeastern Highway (Pakuranga end) warning of "major roadworks starting Aug 20, use alternative route". I have searched the Ameti site and Googled the net and cannot find any explanation of what these "major roadworks" are that will affect these two routes. I'm guessing it's related to the Ameti project, but what major roadworks could there be that means reducing the options in an already congested area of Auckland?

- Rae Smith, Panmure, and Ross Bragg, Panmure.

You're right, it is part of the Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (Ameti) project, which will eventually improve traffic options between Glen Innes and Pakuranga.

The Panmure section, costing $200 million, has a number of parts to it, and will take until at least 2016 to complete.

A road bridge is being built across Auckland's eastern railway line to replace the Mountain Rd bridge. This is needed to make room for the rail electrification project.

Mountain Rd will also be diverted away from the roundabout to feed into Jellicoe Rd, and there will be upgrades at the railway station to accommodate the new road, which will run beneath the station's western side and the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway.

The station improvements will include an interchange so passengers can transfer to trains from a busway to be built from Pakuranga, and Morrin Rd, north of Panmure, will be widened to four lanes between Fraser and Tainui Rds.

Construction is expected to start early next year on a new bridge over the railway line to give buses access to the interchange, and a replacement bridge just to the south of that, on the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway.

The best news of the lot, to my mind, is that the diabolical Panmure roundabout will be replaced by an upgraded intersection, which hopefully will remove the risk-taking that currently occurs here. But this won't be until after 2014. In the meantime, a new road between Mt Wellington Highway and Glen Innes should take some of the pressure off the roundabout.

I travel on SH1 past Papakura interchange each day, and there's a lot of construction going on. What's happening there?

- Brent Betbeder, Auckland.

Ah, so nice to have a theme.

There are several major components to the interchange upgrade project, including a new three-lane bridge next to the existing Beach Rd overbridge, an additional northbound on-ramp at Hilldene Rd, additional lanes on the existing north and southbound on- and off-ramps, traffic signals at the southbound on- and off-ramp intersection with Beach Rd, traffic signals at the northbound on- and off-ramp intersection at Hingaia Rd, new walking and cycling facilities on the new bridge and a noise wall running the length of the south-bound off-ramp.

The improvements are aimed at allowing for future growth in Papakura and Karaka in the next 20 years.

One of the most significant improvements will affect drivers from Karaka, who will no longer need to cross oncoming traffic to get on to the northbound motorway.

Despite the dismal winter weather, the project is ahead of schedule, and the new on-ramp should be finished in October.

The whole $35 million project should be completed by the end of next year.