Sign puts fear into North Shore motorists

Transit New Zealand has had to calm down North Shore commuters mistakenly fearing a new electronic sign on Onewa Rd is the start of a controversial motorway rationing scheme.

A disclosure by the Herald last week of a plan to install traffic lights on every Auckland motorway on-ramp sparked calls to the highways agency from drivers alarmed the sign may be part of the master-plan.

Consultants have begun investigations for installing lights on all Southern Motorway off-ramps, as part of a "ramp-metering" system attuned to congestion sensors and due to be introduced over Auckland's entire motorway network in the next two years.

But acting Transit regional manager Richard Hancy said on Friday that the new variable message sign (VMS) at the bottom of Onewa Rd, erected the same morning as the newspaper's disclosure, was simply to provide drivers with motorway traffic information.

He said it had been erected in time to advise motorists of resealing work after Christmas on the harbour bridge and through St Mary's Bay to Victoria Park, and was the 11th such sign to appear on or next to the Auckland motorway network.

Onewa Rd was a logical site as a motorway access point for about 20,000 vehicles a day.

But Mr Hancy acknowledged that the sign could be seen as linked indirectly to plans to control the flow of traffic joining motorways as it would help motorists to prepare their journeys better in line with Transit's long-term "travel demand management" project.

Bulk electricity distributor Transpower will also start work on December 27, digging twin trenches down Fanshawe St to lay ducts for future high-voltage cables to reinforce supply north.

Similar "future-proofing" work along the route of the proposed Northern Busway will follow.

Transpower wants to lay three lots of ducts in each trench now, so it can thread two 220,000-volt power cables through them and along the underside of the harbour bridge in six to eight years as part of a major electricity supply upgrade from Penrose to Albany.

The trenches and duct-laying are expected to take most of January and will be followed by an 11-month project of the Auckland City Council to widen Fanshawe St to create bus lanes in each direction. 

Bottlenecks

Motorists passing through Auckland from next Monday face delays from at least three big projects.

December 27 to January 2 (day and night): Both southbound clip-on lanes on the Harbour Bridge, plus the Shelly Beach Rd exit to Ponsonby, will be closed to allow a lower-maintenance polyurethane surface to be laid. Lanes three and four southbound will remain open.

January 9 to 13 (overnight only): The two outside southbound lanes of the motorway from the bridge to the Victoria Park flyover will be closed from 8pm to 5.30am. The Fanshawe St exit will close sporadically, but the Shelly Beach Rd exit will be available. Transit hopes to keep two southbound lanes open.

December 27 to January 31: Inside lanes of Fanshawe St closed in both directions between Hobson St and Beaumont St while Transpower digs twin trenches for high-voltage electricity-line ducting, but two lanes each way will remain open most of the time.

February 1 to December: Auckland City Council to widen Fanshawe St for a bus lane in each direction. First nine months of work involves moving services such as drains and cables from under footpaths, and the council hopes there will be little or no disruption to motor traffic. The actual road widening will take only about two months, and should be ready by Christmas.