KEY POINTS:
When you join Shelly Beach Rd from the southbound Harbour Bridge offramp there is a 50km/h sign. However, when you leave Westhaven Marina on the slip road leading up to Shelley Beach Rd there is an 80km/h sign. I am surprised there are not any accidents where the slip road joins the offramp, with those entering from the bridge reducing their speed to 50 while those from Westhaven are accelerating to 80 to merge with the motorway traffic. What is the speed limit meant to be?
Richard Thorpe, Auckland.
Transit says that because the speed of vehicles using the Shelly Beach Rd offramp is 80km/h at the point where the link from Westhaven joins the ramp, the speed limit is 80km/h on the link road.
Where the offramp merges with Shelly Beach Rd proper, the 50km/h speed limit applies as this is an urban area.
Can you advise what is happening in New North Rd at Kingsland? It appears to be quite a major job.
Anne King, Kingsland.
The works disturbing life in Kingsland are part of the Clear Harbour Alliance project. This is a partnership between Metrowater, Works Infrastructure, GHD Ltd and Opus International Consultants, to complete a three-year $50 million venture to improve water quality at the city's beaches and harbour.
The idea is to modernise the city's ageing drainage systems to cope with future population and economic growth.
The Clear Harbour project aims to separate the current combined pipes serving about 1800 commercial and residential properties in Kingsland and Mt Eden. This will hopefully reduce the annual volume of pollution entering the Waitemata Harbour around Westmere and St Mary's Bay by 70,000cu m by 2011.
The present pipe system cannot cope with heavy rain, resulting in overflows of diluted sewage running into open waterways and streams.
Sewer separation work has been completed in Pt Chevalier, Orakei Basin and Upland Rd.
And an upgrade is planned for New North Rd - Kingsland's main street - but it's still in the early stages. There will be a workshop for interested locals next Monday, May 12, from 6.30pm to 9pm, upstairs at the Kingslander, to discuss ideas developed so far.
I often see camera vans stopped on Auckland motorways. Are they in an emergency situation, or flouting the law? If the latter, should the police be ticketing them?
John Hartles, Auckland.
They are police speed camera vans. They photograph and enforce fines for speeding motorists, as many of us know to our considerable cost. Because the police are enforcing the law, they are exempt from the no-stopping requirement.
They are, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion.
