KEY POINTS:
Travelling on Portage Rd from Green Bay to New Lynn, it's unclear to me which lane I'm supposed to be in at the roundabout, to continue on Portage Rd, which veers slightly right.
Usually you would get into the left lane, but the markings on the road suggest you take the right lane. I've tried both, and the right lane seems very dangerous when you try to get off the roundabout into Portage Rd, especially as there are no 'off' markings. We have had a few near-misses, so please could the road markings be improved?
Petra Reiter, Auckland.
Roundabouts can be tricky things, and this one is no exception, although it's not as bad as some. So the Ask Phoebe team sent its crack investigative reporter (me) and a photographer, to see what was what.
Coming from Green Bay, Portage Rd has two lanes at the roundabout. The right lane is marked right turn only, so you can exit on Wolverton St, and the left lane has three arrows, to allow you to get to Astley Ave, Clark St and Portage Rd. So my interpretation of the signs is to use the left lane.
On the Northern Motorway heading south, just before the Northcote offramp, there are cones beside the median strip. The lanes have been repainted to accommodate them, but what used to be a straight stretch of road now has a kink in it. It's been like that for several months with no sign of activity. Any idea what's happening?
Mike McKinley, Auckland.
It's a temporary kink, to create a work area in the median. Transit is building another northbound lane between Northcote Rd interchange and the Sunnynook underpass, using part of the existing median strip. New barriers will also be installed.
The Wairau Rd and Tristram Ave overpasses are being widened as part of the project, and the work area will provide room for the construction team and a crane.
It is scheduled to be finished by the end of the year, but in the meantime, it will be something to look at when stuck in the traffic.
I note that many highways and motorways have, from time to time, a series of markings painted on them. These take the form of parallel white dashed lines over a distance of 100m or so. Equally spaced between them are more white dashes at right angles. What is the purpose of the markings?
Bob Armstrong, Hamilton.
These markings used to be painted blue, but Transit, like all of us, must make economies where it can, and now they're white. They are pavement calibration sites, used to calibrate lasers mounted on high-speed survey vehicles. Transit checks the road network annually, to ascertain what maintenance needs to be done in terms of resurfacing and the like, and the calibration marks ensure that readings are taken in the same places.
* Last week, in Ask Phoebe, I got it wrong. It's not Johnson's Hill north of Orewa, where the tunnels are being built, but Johnstone's Hill. It's named after the Johnstone family who farmed on the north side of the ridge for several decades.
