Ask Phoebe: Lots more time to ponder on delays

When will the roadworks on SH1 at Warkworth be finished? While waiting 45 minutes in a long queue one recent Sunday in order to get through Warkworth's traffic lights heading south, I had time to reflect that these roadworks have been going on for a very long time without a lot of obvious progress. It looks as though there are going to be more sets of traffic lights - is this true? Sue Cooper, Auckland. And Mr MacKenzie asks whether this is a local or regional upgrade. Will the bridge be widened? Is it a patch-up in the meantime? What period of time is involved?

Waiting 45 minutes certainly does give one time to reflect. Work on SH1 in and around Warkworth began in April, although from observation there always seems to be something going on here.

However, the current improvements, the first phase of which involves the section between Woodcocks and Whitaker Rds, will help manage traffic along SH1. Later phases will include upgrading intersections at Hill St, Hudson Rd and McKinney Rd.

There are plans to widen SH1 and introduce left-turn slip lanes, and to add walkways and cycleways, as well as upgrading the existing ones. New lights will be put in at the intersection of Woodcocks Rd and SH1, and the Whitaker Rd lights will be upgraded. Safety at Mahurangi College is a major consideration. The project is estimated to cost $20 million. There is no mention on the Transport Agency website of bridge widening. And the time frame? It's a breathtaking four years.

Why are there are two misleading signs northbound on the Northern Motorway, before the toll road? Firstly, the free route is signposted to start at the Silverdale exit. In fact, it starts at the Orewa exit. I assume the purpose of this sign is to make the free route longer and thus encourage more people to use the toll road. Secondly, after taking the Orewa exit, there are signs saying "no heavy vehicles", so these vehicles have to do a u-turn, get back on the motorway and go back to Silverdale. John Robertson, Auckland.

You know what they say about assumption, Mr Robertson, but you're not the first to ask and probably not the last.

The rationale behind the signage is this: The free route north is signposted at Silverdale because, by an agreement between Rodney District Council and the Transport Agency, all overweight and oversized vehicles are not allowed to use the toll road, and neither are they allowed down Grand Drive, the final exit to Orewa before the toll road. Big trucks must therefore get off the motorway at Silverdale, and rejoin SH1 at Puhoi.

But my question is this: Would it not then make sense to indicate this, so that ordinary motorists would know that there is another exit for them, at Orewa, which they are entitled to use?

On my morning trip to work I come down Mt Eden Rd past the Powerstation, and often there is a person there with a video camera recording traffic heading towards Symonds St. What is that person doing? I have seen this in other locations around the city too. Neil McEnteer, Pakuranga.

The camera operators are city council employees, trying to catch motorists unlawfully driving in bus lanes. The transgressors are then pinged a hefty $150. My question is, why are the snappers still there when the majority of buses are not running because of industrial action?