Three Kings resident Nina Kristensen speaks about the problems a pedestrian crossing has been causing for locals and their homes.
Video / Jason Oxenham
Auckland Transport faces pressure to remove raised road crossings after complaints about tremors and cracks.
Residents from Avondale, Blockhouse Bay, and Carlton St report noise and structural damage from the crossings.
AT plans to remove some crossings and is consulting with local boards for further actions.
Auckland Transport is under pressure to rip up raised road crossings, with angry residents coming forward with complaints about tremors and cracks through their homes.
Following a story in the Herald this month about a raised pedestrian crossing in Titirangi being dug up and replaced with a level zebra crossing, residents from three more streets have raised concerns.
Marlene Person, aged 84, has lived in her home in a lane backing on to busy Ash Rd in Avondale for about 20 years. She says vehicles going over a raised crossing on the road shake the whole house and she can no longer sit outside because of the noise.
Marlene Person at the raised crossing on Ash Rd, Avondale. Photo / Michael Craig
“I was sitting here one day with a glass of water on the table and watching it continuously vibrating. My daughter’s upstairs bedroom has a big crack in the wall,” Person said.
A neighbour, who has since moved, told Person in November about Auckland Transport’s (AT) plans to remove the speed bump.
“I could be six feet under by the time they do anything,” she said.
At Connaught St in Blockhouse Bay, Gemma Thompson said ever since AT installed a raised speed table about 10 years ago, it’s been “a pain [in] the bum”.
“Any time a truck, trailer, bus goes over it, it’s noisy and shakes the house. It’s annoying, it doesn’t slow people down because they feel it’s easier to go faster over it.
The speed table on Connaught St, Hillsborough. Photo / Michael Craig
“There’s some guy with a trailer who goes over at half past five every morning ... an empty trailer and it bounces, and it wakes us all up.”
AT has done geotechnical testing, Thompson said. Another resident believed the area under the table was historical fill and the underlying cause of the problem.
Recent research by AT found some raised crossings have been affected by substrata issues, which could be as deep as eight metres. AT typically tests to two metres below the surface, but said testing any deeper was simply not cost-effective.
Residents are complaining about raised crossings. Photo / Michael Craig
In Hillsborough, Nick Slade said residents were having problems with a new set of bus-friendly speed tables in Carlton St that replaced an earlier set that worked well to slow traffic.
At a public meeting on the new speed humps, he said 95% of people were against the idea, but AT went ahead and installed them for a new bus route on Carlton St.
“It has been a bit of a nightmare for the last four or five years. We get cracks and gaps. You sit there and see the side lamp moving while reading at night. You can feel the bus sometimes shaking the bed, shaking the lounge suite.”
AT transport design and standards manager Chris Beasley said the agency was preparing to remove the raised crossing at the intersection of Ash St and Wairau Rd but gave no date.
He said at Carlton St in Hillsborough, the speed tables were installed in about 2009 as part of traffic calming in the area, where this residential street was being used as a thoroughfare to and from the SH20 motorway.
“We will be seeking direction from the local board on whether any changes should be made.”
At Connaught St in Blockhouse Bay, Beasley said the speed tables have been assessed to be in line with international vibration standards.
Contractros digging up the pedestrian crossing at Hayr Rd, Three Kings last year. Photo / Bernard Orsman
AT said it had only removed one raised crossing on Hayr Rd in Three Kings. It also planned to remove the raised crossing in Titirangi.
In January last year, AT demolished the 1-year-old crossing on Hayr Rd designed to last 40 years. It was replaced with a standard crossing.
At the time, Nina Kristensen claimed the vibrations from trucks caused significant damage to her home and driveway, telling the Herald last week that AT had still not provided any help.
“You just end up hating Auckland Transport with a passion. They are so removed from being part of this community,” she said.
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