Gridlock hits Orewa again

By NATASHA HARRIS

Traffic ground to a halt for the second time in three days north of Auckland yesterday, sparking anger over the Orewa bottleneck.

On Friday, 15,000 cars waited up to five hours to head north as traffic came to a virtual standstill where the northern motorway joins Orewa's suburban streets.

Yesterday, police turned off traffic lights at the intersection of State Highway 1 and Westhoe Rd in Orewa, in a bid to free up a bottleneck of vehicles heading south after the weekend.

Senior Constable Barry Rose from Orewa said traffic was moving at 10km/h over the 10km journey between Puhoi and Orewa from 4pm yesterday.

Orewa ratepayers and residents association president John Drury said the bottleneck was terrible and that the proposed Orewa motorway extension needed to be built.

"This has gone beyond a joke, there's people been talking about blocking the roads but this would cause even more inconvenience for holidaymakers," Mr Drury said.

"The traffic from Grand Drive joining State Highway 1 is absolutely horrendous - it's a deathtrap."

The Automobile Association agreed with Mr Drury.

"It's one of the worst accident areas and we've been pressing the Government for years on increasing the funding for the motorway, said Stephen Selwood, AA northern regional manager.

In the past few years peak holiday traffic has regularly slowed to a crawl at Orewa as the motorway shrinks into a 50-70km/h link road through suburbia and then joins State Highway 1 up the coast.

A $158 million, 6km bypass from Orewa to Puhoi was due to be built by the end of next year but was delayed in 2000 by Environment Court challenges.

The plan has since dropped to the bottom of the region's roading wish-list in favour of completing Auckland's congested motorways, meaning it may not be built for 10 years.

The Auckland Regional Council is considering a private or public toll road for the bypass.

To avoid delays at Orewa, Mr Selwood advised travellers to use the Helensville bypass on State Highway 16, which joins State Highway 1 at Wellsford.

Herald feature: Cutting the road toll

Related links