KEY POINTS:
Where have all the wildflowers gone? The Southern Motorway used to be lined with beautiful strips of annuals and perennials, but they seem much reduced now. Why is this?
Rose Churchman, Auckland.
The wildflower project was set up in 1998 to improve the look of the motorway network, reduce maintenance costs and limit the time that maintenance crews had to spend beside busy roads.
But 10 years on, maintenance savings have not been as great as envisaged. This is because of the need for constant weeding, and because the flowers have not seeded as prolifically as first hoped.
And although the chosen flower mix was expected to flourish in poor ground conditions, this has not always been the case.
A requirement was introduced that all wildflower beds had to have a mown area at least one metre wide around them to prevent seed spread. While this helped to placate nearby farmers who complained about the unwanted flowers, it added to the cost.
The flowerbeds further south on the motorway, near Ramarama, have continued to flourish because of public support, and because the flowers seem to grow more readily there.
And where the flowerbeds do exist, Transit NZ has noticed a reduction in litter and graffiti.
There are still about 16 wildflower sites beside motorways in Auckland, covering more than 60,000sq m.
This is three fewer sites than last season - two have gone because of lack of growth and one has been lost to because of construction.
The beds are planted in autumn, and flower from September to March, weather permitting.
A group of us travelled recently from Pt Chevalier to Ngati Otara Park. We had organised to take the new Highbrook offramp, instead of using the Otara/Papatoetoe offramp further south at East Tamaki Rd.
However, the signs at Highbrook does not include Otara until you are on the offramp and approaching the roundabout. You can then see a sign saying Otara along with MIT but unfortunately half our group missed it and had to go round again.
Is there any way of getting a sign for Otara that you can see from the motorway before you get to the offramp?
Ramon Kaire, Pt Chevalier.
I know exactly what you mean. I was out that way this week, and although I had been advised to take the Highbrook offramp, I didn't see the sign indicating Otara until I was committed to leaving the motorway.
It's great that MIT has a green motorway sign, given its sizeable student base, but surely there would be more people heading to Otara. Maybe the rationale is that we should use the East Tamaki Rd offramp to keep traffic away from local roads.
