Subscribe to RSSAll Lanes On SH20 Upgrade To Open
Weather permitting, all lanes on the upgraded SH20 between Walmsley Road and Queenstown Road will be open and fully functioning from 5am tomorrow.
NZTA says motorists should still drive with caution as there will be some minor works ongoing, including final landscaping as the weather becomes more appropriate for planting.
Work will also continue on footpaths and cycleways in the area, including the new Onehunga Harbour Road footbridge which is due to open late September.
The new and existing Mangere bridges now provide four lanes of traffic and dedicated bus priority lanes in both directions across the Harbour. On either side of the bridges, there are three lanes of traffic and dedicated bus lanes in both directions between Queenstown Road and Walmsley Road.
NZTA expects traffic times will improve.
It says a survey on northbound travel across the harbour shows considerable improvements when capacity on the existing Manukau Harbour Crossing bridge was increased from two to three lanes last May. During the afternoon peak, the average speed increased from 30 kilometres an hour to 62kph, and the time it took to drive the 10 kilometres from Auckland International Airport to the Queenstown Road off-ramp north of the bridge dropped from more than 20 minutes to just under 10 minutes.
NZTA’s State Highways Manager for Auckland, Tommy Parker said that with the final alignment opening tomorrow, drivers in both directions will now find conditions much improved from the queues, delays and frustrations previously experienced.
3 Comments
considering the weather we have had in the past month they have done well to complete this on time
“NZTA expects traffic times will improve.”
As opposed to get worse?
We will see just what we got for our spend.
Well, we will get more capacity (for cars) and faster trips (for 2-3 years?).
I am still relatively mellow on this one, because we got a couple of major other things out of this project:
- Onehunga foreshore restoration
- lots of new walking & cycling facilities (including several new overbridges)
- a bridge at least strengthened enough to take a future train line
Those are quite substantial things, even bearing in mind the otherwise car-sprawl-beneficial qualities of the project.