24/7 shuttle for logjam residents

Major road works are due to start on Onewa Road today. Photo / Richard Robinson

Householders face being transported to and from their homes in a shuttle vehicle as contractors widen North Shore's busy Onewa Rd during a nine-month project starting today.

They will be invited to park their cars in a nearby street to take advantage of the novel 24-hour shuttle service, which North Shore City Council has arranged because of severe traffic constraints expected on one of its most critical links with the harbour bridge and Auckland.

Onewa Rd carries more than 38,000 vehicles a day to and from the Northern Motorway. It will be reduced to one lane in each direction once the project gets into action, making it next to impossible for residents to drive in and out of their properties.

The project, at the eastern end of Onewa Rd below Lake Rd, will include completing the route's pioneering city-bound transit lane to give buses and cars carrying three or more people a free run to the motorway interchange, which the Transport Agency upgraded in 2008 as part of the $300 million Northern Busway.

Major delays are being caused by a bottleneck where those vehicles now have to merge with general traffic before reaching the motorway.

Commuters from a swathe of suburbs stretching from Northcote to Beach Haven face even worse delays in the coming nine months along Onewa Rd, a 2km link between Birkenhead and the motorway which North Shore mayor Andrew Williams acknowledged last night sometimes took up to half an hour to traverse at peak times.

But he said it was crucial to clear the bottleneck to take advantage of the interchange and work which the council has already completed at the bottom end of Onewa Rd.

"It is going to cause some inconvenience, but it's the old story that you've got to have some pain to make some gain. Hopefully people will realise that the faster we can do it, the sooner people can get the benefits."

The project will also include extending a shared footpath for cyclists and pedestrians from the Onepoto Bridge up Onewa Rd to its intersection with Queen St, and inserting a central flush median strip to improve the safety of residents battling heavy traffic to enter and leave their properties.

Council infrastructure and environment committee chairman Ken McKay said a monitored car-parking area in nearby Belle Vue Ave and the free shuttle service were among measures aimed at minimising disruption and inconvenience in the meantime.