KEY POINTS:
I work at the Great South Rd end of Sylvia Park Rd in Mt Wellington. Every night there is a massively unpredictable tail to get on to the Mt Wellington Highway and the motorway southbound. This has been further compounded by ramp signals at the entry point to the motorway. Why is a ramp signal needed here, when the onramp goes into its own lane? Over Christmas the backup of traffic was horrendous, and I see no sign that it will ease.
Garth Hedley, Auckland.
The idea behind ramp signals on an onramp that goes into its own motorway lane, such as Mt Wellington, is to drip-feed traffic on to the motorway.
This makes lane-changing and merging further down the road a safer proposition, as obviously not everyone wants to get off at Princes St. It also keeps the motorway traffic flowing more smoothly when motorists don't have to cope with a swathe of new arrivals trying to muscle in on their lanes.
On a broader front, there are changes afoot for the future of Mt Wellington Highway, which are intended to make life easier for motorists.
The Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) is a project directed at improving transport and infrastructure on both sides of the Tamaki River.
It includes bus lanes on Ti Rakau Drive, Lagoon Drive, Ellerslie Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. There is a possibility that the Tamaki train station will re-open, with improved access, as well as a bus/train interchange at Panmure, new street approach to Sylvia Park train station, and bus interchanges at Sylvia Park and Pakuranga.
Extra cycleways around the area are planned, as well as better pedestrian access to train stations and shopping precincts.
A major piece of new road will be an arterial link between Van Dammes Lagoon and Merton Rd. A new local road will be built between Waipuna Rd and the intersection of Mt Wellington Highway and Triangle Rd, other roads will be widened and possibly a new bridge built across the Tamaki River.
All of this, of course, will not remove the current congestion problems, as growth within and around the area continues to add to the traffic volumes. It has been estimated that with the right transport system in place, the areas on both sides of the Tamaki River could accommodate 70,000 more people and another 30,000 jobs. Just think about that for a moment.
The total project has been estimated to cost up to $1.33 billion, and take up to 15 years to complete.
That's 15 years of road works and disruption. The spectre of the Ameti-ville horror?
