KEY POINTS:
Roadworks began yesterday to start Auckland's long-planned $43 million central bus corridor project between Britomart and Newmarket.
Auckland City Mayor John Banks was out before dawn in Anzac Ave as Ngati Whatua kaumatua, Cyril Talbot, blessed the central connector project, which will include installing 24-hour bus lanes along much of the 4km route and strengthening the 98-year-old Grafton Bridge to carry heavier buses and withstand one in 1000-year earthquakes.
The work involves widening roads to give buses and bicycles more space, improving footpaths with new paving and canopies, and providing more bus shelters, pedestrian crossings and street furniture.
About 40 trees will be removed and replaced by larger numbers further back from roadways along the route.
Transport planners expect the corridor to serve up to 65,000 bus passengers each weekday and predict it will knock 14 minutes off trips which can now take half an hour at peak times between Auckland's two main retail centres.
Traffic signals will be adjusted to change to green when they detect buses approaching intersections.
First up for the makeover is Anzac Ave, of which about a third of the width between Beach Rd and Waterloo Quadrant near Auckland University has been coned off by contractor Fulton Hogan.
Although two traffic lanes remain in each direction, the road has been temporarily re-marked to reduce its width, leaving a tight squeeze for buses, cars and bicycles vying for space.
City council project manager Graham Long acknowledged potential difficulties for pedestrians trying to cross the busy road, but hoped traffic would observe a 30km/h speed restriction to minimise any hazards.
Ten new pedestrian crossings will eventually be built along the route and marked with raised mats for the visually impaired.
Mr Long said all work needed on each section of the route, including upgrades to stormwater drains and other underground service lines, would be carried out at the same time to reduce disruption to traffic, businesses and residents.
Although work on the section encompassing Anzac Ave, Beach Rd and Customs St would continue until December, Symonds St would be left untouched until university students finished their academic year.
Parking spaces have also been left on Symonds St for the many students who ride to classes on motorcycles or scooters.
This will remain in place once the project is completed, even though carparking between protected roadside trees in the vicinity has already been banned for safety reasons, with support from university administrators.
But work will also start next month on another busy section of the route, Park Rd between Grafton Bridge and Auckland City Hospital.
Strengthening of the bridge itself is not due to start in November, after which it will be closed to traffic for about 13 months until the project is completed early in 2010.
Although the bus corridor proposal includes banning general traffic from the bridge between 7am to 7pm each weekday to make way for up to 1500 daily bus movements, council officers have offered to review that aspect of the project in light of reservations expressed by new transport committee chairman Ken Baguley.
A further 1100 bus services are expected to use the Symonds St part of the corridor to and from southern suburbs without crossing the bridge.
Mr Banks told the Herald yesterday he had yet to form a view on the traffic ban.
He noted that Auckland's mayor of the day, Sir Arthur Myers, said on opening the bridge that it would "enable the people of the country to stay in touch with the people of the town."
"It could be a case of suck it and see," Mr Banks said.
"I don't think we should be dog in the manger about any of these decisions - if it's the best thing to do, then we run with it. If we make a mistake, then we change it."
Whatever happens on the bridge, Mr Banks said the new corridor would form part of a vital public transport link between North Shore City and southwestern Auckland via Britomart and Newmarket.
