KEY POINTS:
Could you please advise when the Hillsborough Rd/Maioro St/Mt Roskill motorway extension and the new Mangere Bridge will be open for use? And will there be a public walk-along day before these are open for vehicle use? Faye Cocker, Auckland.
The State Highway 20 Mt Roskill extension is scheduled to open in April. Plans for the ceremony are still being worked out. Watch this space.
The duplication of Mangere Bridge, which will provide eight lanes between Mangere Bridge and Onehunga, and three lanes each way elsewhere as far as Walmsley Rd, should be finished by March 2011.
Are there any plans to widen the motorway overbridge and provide three lanes at the Takanini onramp northbound? Problems lie with the inside motorway lane and onramp merging suddenly, with little room for error if the outside fast lane is full. Phil King, Pakuranga.
Bad news and not so bad news. There are no plans for widening this area in the New Zealand Transport Agency's 10-year state highway plan and forecast.
However, in the New Year, the NZTA will begin a study on the long-term needs of motorists travelling on the Southern Motorway between Manukau, Drury and the Takanini Interchange.
When does the NZTA plan to build three lanes northbound from Constellation Drive to Greville Rd? George Hayden, North Shore.
It doesn't. Extra capacity was created with the opening of the lane between Northcote and Sunnynook, which reportedly makes a difference at the evening peak. Again, the better news is that, with the North Shore City Council, the NZTA is in the process of reviewing the long-term transport needs of this area.
What happened to short term and medium term, I wonder?
As one leaves Onewa Rd and climbs the abutment of the new overbridge to head south towards the harbour bridge, there is a sign on the right hand side, visible only to vehicles heading south, reading "Northern Motorway".
This may be technically correct, but the sign must give strangers heading south a few moments of confusion and/or panic until they find they are actually heading in the right direction.
The sign appears to be of minimal use. Who is it intended to inform? And why?
I suggest that no sign would be better than a technically correct but confusing one.
The sign reads "Northern Motorway" because that's the name of the road. It's equivalent to the name on your street sign, and it's there because that's the name used in street maps, so that it can be found on a map by drivers and navigators.
Technically, as we know, it's State Highway 1.
But before you reach that Northern Motorway sign there is a large overhead green sign saying "Motorway South" and "Auckland", which indicates that you are indeed heading in the right direction.
