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Commuters have been promised extra emergency traffic management measures this morning to lessen the extent of chaos caused by reconstruction work on one of Auckland's busiest routes.
Traffic banked up for several kilometres from the roadworks yesterday morning on Hillsborough Rd, throwing bus schedules into disarray from there to Dominion Rd, choking retail custom along the way, and forcing Lynfield College to delay the start of the level-one NCEA English exam.
Deputy principal Murray Black said bottlenecks around the school were far worse than he expected when he arrived by a circuitous route at 7.30am, prompting an urgent application to the Qualifications Authority to start the exam at 9.45am, 15 minutes later than scheduled.
No student appeared to have missed the start, but Mr Black feared students suffered high anxiety on their way to school, and several teachers reported taking a hour longer than usual to arrive.
Yesterday morning's peak was the first to be affected by a full closure of the eastbound lane of Hillsborough Rd for about 1km from White Swan Rd to Kings Haven Close, past the Lynfield shopping centre.
White Swan Rd and neighbouring streets were full, with detour traffic until 9.30am to 10am, in what appeared to be even worse congestion than caused by a $1.3 million reconstruction project early this year at the eastern end of Hillsborough Rd. Bus operator Stagecoach was assured of a better traffic management effort this time by Auckland City Council, but spokesman Steve Wade said it had proven inadequate and there were many delays to services.
One bus from the Blockhouse Bay terminus in Gilfillan St took 35 minutes to reach May Rd, less than 4km away - a trip which may have been almost twice as long had it not been able to slip past gridlocked traffic along a bus-lane and shoulders.
Auckland Regional Transport Authority has arranged extra buses along Dominion Rd this morning, to spare central suburbs passengers from delay to services starting in Blockhouse Bay.
Auckland City transport programme manager Tony Kay said he expected traffic to ease in coming days as drivers change their travel patterns to adjust to the roadworks, another $1.3 million project which could take nine weeks, with a break over Christmas.
He said a variable message sign would be placed at the Blockhouse Bay roundabout this morning to give an earlier warning to motorists, and traffic-light signals would be retimed to improve flows where possible.
Blockhouse Bay florist Raewyn Singleton said shops in her area relied on Christmas trade to make up for being "a bit off the beaten track" and she expected a major impact on business.
Hillsborough Wine and Spirits owner Chandresh Modi said he lost up to 35 per cent of his regular business during eight weeks of roadworks early this year and was suffering a 20 per cent cut from the latest disruption.
