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Auckland City Council will use extra electronic signs and radio messages to alert commuters to disruptive roadworks as they return to work on Monday.
Those returning from time off in the sun will find that construction crews have had little rest over the holiday period, but are still beavering away on projects at eight sites in Central Auckland through to Newmarket.
Although only half of those involve Auckland City contracts, they all affect council-controlled roads.
The biggest disruption on Monday is expected to be caused by the city's reconstruction of the small but heavily-used eastern end of Cook St, outside the central police station, and by cable trenches being dug by electricity lines company Vector at the city end of Fanshawe St.
Other big projects include the reconstruction of Curran St - which feeds traffic from Ponsonby to the Auckland Harbour Bridge - as well as the widening of Symonds St and strengthening of Grafton Bridge for the council's $43 million busway between Britomart and Newmarket.
Parts of Symonds St will continue to be reduced to one lane in each direction as the work progresses through much of the year, and the bridge will remain closed to traffic until early next year.
Three other road bridges, across railway lines in Khyber Pass Rd, Park Rd and Remuera Rd in Newmarket, will also be constricted throughout much of the year as replacement structures are built in anticipation of the $1 billion rail electrification project.
Traffic at the eastern end of Cook St has been reduced this week to two lanes heading towards the city only, but the flow is expected to be reversed at the weekend, depending on the weather.
That will mean traffic going into the city will have to find alternative routes between Monday and Wednesday, when the council hopes the reconstruction work will be finished.
Disruption is expected to continue until January 17 at the city end of Fanshawe St, which has been reduced to one westbound lane, causing peak-hour holdups along Albert St and Customs St.
Vector's contractors will then move back to Quay St to finish trenches they started digging in November before the council declared a pre-Christmas moratorium to ease serious congestion for last-minute shoppers and tourists from visiting cruise ships.
But that was too late to prevent traffic jams one weekend last month all the way from Quay St to Northcote, where the Transport Agency closed all northbound motorway lanes to demolish a bridge - provoking criticism from Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee of an alleged lack of co-ordination over roading projects.
Mr Lee has written to the agency and the mayors of Auckland's four cities suggesting that road-controlling authorities be given more power to control what happens in their own streets rather than having to rely on voluntary agreements with network utility operators.
He proposed a heavier enforcement of a "lane rental" concept, under which contractors would be charged for occupying a road for longer than an agreed minimum period.
"I believe we need to have a commitment to managing this work in a more intelligent and strategic way so that disruption to motorists, and in fact to the life of [the] city generally, is kept to a minimum," he wrote.
A council spokesman said that although next week would certainly be busier on city streets, traffic would not return to its full capacity until January 27, the Tuesday after Auckland Anniversary Weekend.
"The council is therefore completing as much work as possible until this date, and ideally completing it faster," he said yesterday.
"Contractors are taking advantage of the good weather available in the summer months to complete as much work as possible."
The spokesman said the council was monitoring all work areas and, although there were "slight delays" during peak times, traffic was generally flowing well.
Although a council policy for all big projects to be completed as fast as possible may require more substantial lane closures than otherwise, it reduced long-term disruption while delivering more infrastructure benefits.
"Each project will play a significant part in improving Auckland's transport and services infrastructure."
