KEY POINTS:
Central Auckland's main link with its largest hospital will be cut tomorrow night, as the historic Grafton Bridge closes for a major 14-month upgrade.
That is just one of big three projects set to cause headaches for city traffic in the run-up to Christmas.
All motor vehicles, including ambulances, will have to use alternative routes to reach Auckland City Hospital between 10pm tomorrow and early 2010.
That is when the bridge is due to reopen as part of a new $43 million Britomart-Newmarket busway for which Auckland City Council says the 99-year-old structure needs a $6.9 million upgrade to make it strong enough to carry up to 1200 buses a day and withstand thousand-year earthquakes.
The council says it has worked closely with the hospital and St John Ambulance to ensure quick access for emergency vehicles via alternative routes.
Ambulance drivers have already become practised at weaving their way past construction activities in Park Rd, including for the bus corridor and replacement bridges being built over the western railway line by Ontrack, both there and in nearby Khyber Pass Rd.
The Newmarket Business Association expects major challenges for traffic trying to reach its shopping centre.
General manager Cameron Brewer said the projects all needed doing, as did several others planned for Newmarket, and he was not complaining.
He expected extra pressure on the Southern Motorway as drivers found their two main routes to Newmarket - Grafton Bridge and Khyber Pass Rd - closed off.
* Other projects affecting Newmarket include a major stormwater upgrade likely to affect traffic between Lumsden Green and Carlton Gore Rd between now and December, and the $195 million motorway viaduct replacement beginning next month.
* Power lines company Vector is meanwhile warning motorists and bus passengers to expect major disruption along Auckland's main waterfront for up to four months.
Preparations for two high-voltage cable trenches will start with concrete-cutting in Lower Albert St next Thursday.
North Shore services other than the Northern Express will be diverted up Hobson St, away from the normal Albert St route until December 14 and a bus stop in Lower Albert St for western buses will close temporarily.
Link buses will be affected from December 15 until February, when the excavations move to Quay St, and more disruption is expected next year when Fanshawe St is dug up.
