Waterfront roadwork chaos nears its end

Motorists have endured months of frustration during the roading rebuild and associated work on Quay St. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Months of frustration for many central Auckland drivers should end next week with the completion of major roading and power upgrade work along much of Quay St.

Electricity lines company Vector has already finished laying new cables and ducting for future power supply and telecommunications, and filling in a disused service tunnel, leaving only Auckland Transport to tidy up after a $2.5 million road rebuild since Christmas.

Project director Bob Cook, from the Auckland Road Maintenance Alliance contracting group, said yesterday that three new elongated traffic islands should be finished on Monday and Quay St should be free of most obstructions by the end of next week between Lower Hobson St and Tangihua St.

Two exceptions would be finishing work on a new parking building which has closed part of the inbound bus lane near Quay St's intersection with Britomart Place as well as footpath reconstruction for the Queens Wharf upgrade.

More work is also needed to erect a new telecommunications tower on the seaward side of Quay St, but Mr Cook said any disruption to traffic would be minimised as contractors had done their trenching during the road rebuild.

Although the rebuild has caused major disruption over a long period for the 25,000 or so vehicles which usually use Quay St daily, Mr Cook said it could have been much worse had the road work and the power upgrade been done separately.

He said the rebuild had been delayed for six years, but the road's new concrete foundation was designed to last for 25 years.

A new surface would be laid every eight to 10 years.

Several other contractors had taken the opportunity to lay new service lines during the roadworks, which should prevent Quay St from having to be dug up again in the "foreseeable future."

Vector capital projects manager Alison Blackler said the new ducts under Quay St would allow future cables to be pulled through them from the roadside, without having to dig into the carriageway.

Mr Cook said an extensive use of electronic message signs along Tamaki Drive, and even on motorways courtesy of the Transport Agency, helped to persuade drivers of about 5000 vehicles a day to use alternative routes.

But 22 other development projects downtown had coincided with his work, meaning varying levels of disruption on those routes as well.

Auckland Transport chief operating officer Fergus Gammie told his board on Wednesday that there had been a need to complete the work for the Rugby World Cup.

Consents inherited from the former Auckland City Council had restricted operating hours for some of the work.

Board member Mike Lee, who also chairs Auckland Council's transport committee, took exception to what he called a "rather self-satisfied" report to the board about the Quay St project.

"The underlying tone is that we did a good job - but it isn't good enough," he said. "Because it dragged out over so many months, public patience came to an end."

He said he had never seen a satisfactory explanation for why Vector needed to return to Quay St after digging it up two years ago.

He wondered why contractors had not taken fuller advantage of daylight saving to keep working in the evenings, rather than leave queues of homebound motorists to stare at an abandoned work site.

ROAD HEADACHE

* Began: December 27.
* Finishing: Next week.
* Cost: $2.5 million to Auckland Transport for rebuilding the road between Lower Hobson St and Tangihua St.
* Undisclosed amount to Vector for laying new cables and ducts for power supply and telecommunications.
* Varying amounts for other utility providers who took the chance to lay their services.