KEY POINTS:
Commuters from Auckland's eastern suburbs face several more weeks of disruption from roadworks which began at 3am yesterday along Kepa Rd, waking some nearby residents.
Auckland City Council contractors will spend the next five weeks rebuilding and resurfacing a 300m section of the key arterial route.
Landslips will also be stabilised against a hillside overlooking the road, and the size of the roundabout at its intersection with Orakei Rd will in coming weeks be reduced to increase traffic capacity, in a package of work costing around $1.6 million.
Advance notice of the roadworks - which at one stage were feared may take 11 weeks - meant many motorists sought other routes yesterday morning, leaving traffic flowing slowly but freely along Kepa Rd.
The council has reduced the speed limit to 30km/h and traffic will be allowed to go only westwards towards the CBD between 1am and 1pm each day.
The road east of the roundabout will be closed for an hour till 2pm and then traffic will flow eastwards from the city till midnight.
That is to cater for motorists heading home from the city in the evening traffic peak.
But the restrictions mean even more traffic than usual clogged up Tamaki Drive yesterday morning, extending queues back to Kohimarama by about 8.30am, compared with a tail which normally tapers off about Mission Bay.
Other drivers headed for the hills, trying to find their way through the ordinarily quiet backstreets of well-appointed homes above Mission Bay and Orakei, many of which became thick with traffic.
One commuter reported taking 40 minutes to reach the intersection of Tamaki Drive and Ngapipi Rd via the backstreets from Kohimarama, about four times his usual time.
Ngaio St resident Geoff Dale said many drivers looked lost, including the operator of a concrete truck seen circling his neighbourhood.
Mr Dale said he was rudely woken by digging machinery at 3am, and was unimpressed by an assurance from a council officer that contractors would be forbidden from starting before 5am from today.
"I asked him if he would like me to stand outside his house at 5am with a big broom banging his rubbish bin."
Council transport programme manager Tony Kay said the contractors were under strict instructions not to even turn the keys in their ignitions until 5am, but they had to be left enough time each day to complete their work within a reasonable number of weeks.
"We have to get a balance between causing less disruption all around and getting the job done," he said.
Mr Kay said operating hours would generally extend from 5am until 9pm, with a right to keep working until 10.30pm if the contractors found themselves behind schedule.
He said the job was initially expected to take until June, relying on traditional methods of rebuilding the road, which would have meant removing all "soft spots" in the foundation. But a new technique of laying a concrete pad above areas of soft ground had proven successful elsewhere in Auckland.
