KEY POINTS:
Can you please find out when the roadworks around the High Court will be finished? There have been roadwork signs along Waterloo Quadrant and Symonds St for several weeks, causing major traffic congestion. What are they doing, and when will it be over?
George Kirkwood, Blockhouse Bay.
This is part of the central connector, a dedicated bus route between Britomart and Newmarket. The good news is that this part of the project - widening Anzac Ave to accommodate the bus lanes - is ahead of schedule and should be finished by the end of next month or early November.
Traffic planners expect the 24-hour bus corridor to serve 65,000 bus passengers each weekday and predict it will knock 14 minutes off trips that can now take up to 30 minutes at peak times.
Other improvements along the route include 10 additional pedestrian crossings, new paving and better bus shelter canopies. Bike stands will be added along the route where space permits, and mountable kerbs will be built where bus lanes narrow so that cyclists can get up to a shared footpath.
Another part of the project is the upgrade and strengthening of the 98-year-old Grafton Bridge to carry heavier buses and withstand one-in-1000 year earthquakes. Work on the bridge is due to start in November, after which it will be closed to traffic for about 13 months until the whole project is completed early in 2010. The total project is expected to cost between $43 million and $46 million.
I have been trying to access the Esmonde Rd traffic webcam via the MetService site for some months now. The same message keeps coming up: 'Due to technical faults we are unable to show this picture. Please try again later.'
My question is, how late is later?
B. Jones, Devonport.
I apologise for the delay in responding to this question, but, as you've probably now discovered, that webcam is functioning.
The New Zealand Transport Agency suggests that there might have been a fault in your link to the MetService website. They recommend that to avoid this problem in future you view the camera directly from the NZTA website at www.nzta.govt.nz
As a local resident I've seen the new Hayr Rd bridge in Hillsborough take shape. When is it going to open? From what I understand, the bridge is for local street traffic only. Is this right?
Astrid Johnson, Hillsborough.
How very timely. The Hayr Rd bridge will open in the middle of next month.
The new State Highway 20 motorway extension will go underneath, and when that is finished the Hayr Rd bridge will carry local traffic over the motorway traffic. The SH20 Mt Roskill extension will be finished early next year.
Which is the worst road (street, crescent, lane, terrace, place, close etc) in the Auckland region, and why? Poor surface, poor signage, poor access? Or worse? Email your suggestions to askphoebe@nzherald.co.nz before the end of next month. We'll pick the 10 worst and try to get something done about them.
