Govt eager to start SH1 update

Photo / NZ Herald

Government road-builders hope for an early start on a new highway from Puhoi to Wellsford, which the Auckland Regional Council claims is delaying urgent safety improvements to the existing route.

The council's transport committee has passed a resolution noting concerns about safety and traffic bottlenecks on State Highway 1 and reiterating "support for cost-effective improvements to safety and reliability".

Council chairman Mike Lee said yesterday the resolution followed criticism from promoters of a separate unitary authority for Rodney District, who were accusing his organisation of opposing roading improvements north of Auckland.

He said that although the regional council opposed a "grandiose holiday highway" costing up to $2 billion, it was "complete balderdash" to suggest it was against other improvement.

"We realise there are choke points and significant safety issues on SH1 such as in Dome Valley, but the holiday highway is not going to address these really until 2022," he said.

"If the holiday highway is being justified because of people dying, a whole lot more people will die before it is built - if there is a serious problem, and I believe there is, then let's tackle it urgently."

A council staff report to the transport committee said consent hearings for the new 38km dual carriageway highway between Puhoi and Wellsford, chosen by the Government as one of seven "roads of national significance", were expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

Construction would begin soon afterwards, and was likely to be staged, although the nature of the staging would not be clear until a preferred route was identified.

A Transport Agency project update includes a final design and construction timeline of 2014 to 2019 for the 19km stretch north to Warkworth, and of 2016 to 2022 for the leg to Wellsford.

But the agency's northern highways manager, Tommy Parker, said efforts would be made to start building the road earlier if possible.

"We should have two rounds of consultations completed by the end of the year to allow us to get into the design next year and see how quickly we can get the consents through," he said.

The first round would only seek general views from the public on what was required but a route would be proposed for comments through the second round. Mr Parker acknowledged that the agency was "not spending significant money in the corridor at the moment", given its hope for early construction of the new highway.

Although it was spending about $20 million with Rodney District Council on major intersection and roading improvements through Warkworth, only minor work was planned elsewhere on the rest of the existing highway. But he disclosed that the agency was considering constructing individual sectors of the new highway ahead of others, rather than simply progressing from south to north.