Subscribe to RSSWellington St Closed For 7 Months
The CBD’s Wellington Street onramp is to close for 7 months from May 1 for work related to the Victoria Park tunnel.
But the NZTA is confident Auckland motorists will manage.
During the seven month-long closure, the existing Wellington Street on ramp will be demolished and a new one built. The Victoria Park tunnel entrance and lanes on the southern approach to the tunnel will also be completed.
Acting State Highways Manager for Auckland and Northland, Steve Mutton says Wellington Street was closed last year for three and a half months without significant impacts on central Auckland streets and with improved traffic flows on the motorway.
Closing Wellington Street will affect mainly commuters from the North Shore and Rodney areas leaving the CBD during the afternoon peak, and residents from nearby Ponsonby and Freemans Bay who use the on ramp to access the Northern Motorway.
Mr Mutton says the crunch time for the CBD road network will be between 4pm and 6pm on weekdays. Changes will be made to light phases on streets leading to the Fanshawe Street on ramp to ensure it can cope with additional traffic. These would include removing the right-turns from Beaumont Street to Fanshawe Street.
“We will also be encouraging people to try the northbound Port Link for a quicker exit from the CBD,” he says.
He does also suggest that other actions commuters can take to avoid delays are to change travel times to avoid the afternoon peak, use public transport, or carpool.
“Even with Rugby World Cup traffic on the network during this second closure, we are confident the efficient operation of the local road and motorway networks will not be jeopardised,” says Mr Mutton. “As a contingency, the NZTA will work closely with Auckland Council and event planners to ensure that there is a prompt response to any issues that may arise.”
9 Comments
It is obviously not very important if it was closed for 3.5 months “with improved traffic flows on the motorway.” Why bother rebuilding it?
Owen, I wondered the same thing. Removing ramps improves traffic flow, this is not in any way news. NZ is shocking for the high density of ramps on motorways - someone said we have nearly as many ramps on Auckland’s motorways as London has over several times the distance.
Would be better to save the money, book the improved traffic flows, and close the ramp entirely. Spend some money landscaping it, or level it off and offer the site for sale to developers. It’s prime real estate, and would be worth millions.
I use this ramp all the time. Believe it or not this is the closest ramp that accesses the Northern Motorway for most of southern Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, northern Mt Eden, Newton and Kingsland. Without it you have to go along Franklin Road or Nelson Street to Fanshawe Street, this adds another 5-10 minutes to a North Shore trip. From another perspective this means more traffic on local roads including Nelson Street. I’d like to see it get two wayed then when it is the only route for a large part of Auckland’s inner suburban population to get to the Shore.
When they closed it a few months back traffic flows improved hugely.
The question is when they originally closed the on ramp last year why did they not demolish it then rather than wasting money remodelling it?
I agree with Matt we have far too many interchanges on our motorway system and half should be closed.
I suggest there should be only three for Central Auckland plus the merging of the Northern, North Western and Southern. We seem to have six or seven! For example Gilles Ave and K’Pass should be closed and Greenlane Road upgraded for the extra traffic.
Our planners are not learning and have constructed several in the Hobsonville area on the new motorway. There should be one at Hobsonville then nothing to Westgate.
I reckon it is now proved that we don’t need this one, either for the motorway or for the local streets. Now how about closing the K’rd /Symonds st on-ramp too? That would be great for K’Rd, better for the motorway…. but perhaps a bit tough on Khyber Pass…?
waddyaareckon?
“I reckon it is now proved that we don’t need this one”
I reckon that if NZTA has just spent several million building a new on-ramp (which they will, come end of this year), that is enough proof for THEM that it should be kept. That ship has sailed for now, I am afraid.
Also, I am not quite so positive that closing interchanges is all good. As long as our local transport (i.e. local trips to school and work and shop) are so dependant on motorways, rather than local roads, and in a wider sense, buses, walking and cycling and so on - as long as that is the case, closing interchanges only makes sense for through traffic, but will make life even worse around the remaining interchanges.
Well but Mark that’s the thing. The complete idiots that rammed SH1 through the centre of town have left us with the confusion of which master it is serving: Hamilton to Whangarei or getting Jonny to Grammar? Along with building two [Freemans bay and Grafton Gully] total barriers to cross this thing has not served inner Auckland at all. No wonder it is so beloved of our hayseed provincial masters. I say cut it off and bury the thing so we can get on with making an actual functioning urbis.
Patrick, I was talking of realities, not of how it SHOULD be. This ramp will be built, and it will stay in for many years.
You need to tell off the nearest National or ACT voter you can find, because they are the ones we have to blame.