By JASON COLLIE
"March madness" has arrived early this year, and traffic watchers say Auckland's rush-hour roads are the worst they have ever been.
The annual commuter crawl caused by tens of thousands of tertiary students starting their courses has been exacerbated this year by holidaymakers also heading into the city for the America's Cup.
And, after two horrific mornings already this week, it is predicted it could continue for at least another week.
The only bright news is that Auckland will get $675 million in the next five years for transport and stormwater upgrades from Infrastructure Auckland under its first spending plan.
The funding agency - set up 17 months ago to finance the public good part of transport and stormwater projects across the region - revealed yesterday how much it expects to spend on public transport, roads and stormwater by 2005.
The figures are still only rough estimates, but Infrastructure Auckland chairman John Robertson said he was glad to get some numbers on the board.
Public transport will get the bulk of the cash, with Infrastructure Auckland's draft long-term funding plan estimating grants of $410 million.
Yesterday, some bus services were running almost an hour late as accidents on the Northwestern and Southern Motorways added to the problems.
Transit New Zealand's regional traffic operations manager, Derrick Hitchens, estimated an extra 20,000 vehicles were coming into or going through central Auckland.
The morning rush-hour was also extending well past 9.30 am.
"It's not the regular morning peak," he said. "It's directly related to the university term starting and the America's Cup traffic, with more [holidaymakers] coming into the city earlier.
"It is the worst we can recall, without accidents as the cause.
"In about 10 days it will settle down. Let's hope we can get some wind blowing [for the America's Cup]."
Stagecoach Auckland's operations manager, Nigel Piper, said there was little road passenger transport companies could do to solve the problems.
"Putting more buses on the road is not going to get anyone to work quicker," he said.
Both Mr Piper and Birkenhead Transport's company secretary, Robert Inwards, who had to get behind the wheel himself yesterday because other drivers were delayed, agreed that the morning rush-hour was the worst it has been.
Infrastructure Auckland's new spending plan also forecasts $90 million towards Auckland's road and rail network to mitigate time delays and $100 million towards stormwater.
On top of that, "innovative solutions" to cut traffic congestion, such as cycleways, would receive $75 million by the end of the 2005 financial year.
No projects are named under the plan.
Chief executive Richard Maher said spending forecasts were not included in last year's plan, but Infrastructure Auckland now had a better understanding of the applications it would face.
"This is an overall guide ... but it is not necessarily saying we will be writing cheques for this amount," he said.
"It's very much going to be driven by the projects."
The plan's assumptions also depend on what other funding agencies - most notably Transfund - do, the meeting of Infrastructure Auckland's audit review committee heard yesterday.
The long-term plan forecasts Infrastructure Auckland's finances for the next 10 years, but the guide for spending is limited to the next five years because it would be too difficult to predict the whole period, said Mr Maher.
Mr Robertson said: "This is a major step forward and we are starting to understand the potential for demand in the grants area."
Infrastructure Auckland's statement of corporate intent is also being reviewed.
One key change agreed by the statement's review committee yesterday was to more explicitly give transport priority over stormwater.
Infrastructure Auckland will also scrap its small projects funding scheme, which it used last year as a way of testing how it analyses the merits of applications and to hand out its first wave of grants.
Grants manager Peter Hassell said projects under $500,000 would still be judged under the agency's simplified procedures but would be part of the main funding rounds.
Both the statement and the funding plan are early drafts and must go before the full board and electoral college.
Cup fever makes traffic 'madness' even worse
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