$5m to sweeten redevelopment

Dominion Rd traffic flows are projected to double over 20 years. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Dominion Rd will receive a $5 million design upgrade to soften the impact of a widening project that could double its traffic over 20 years.

Auckland City Council has acknowledged in a consultation brochure that parts of Dominion Rd are already "bursting at the seams" with congested footpaths and traffic lanes.

It expects traffic to become even heavier with the completion in 2009 of the $169 million Mt Roskill motorway extension of State Highway 20, to which Dominion Rd will be linked by an interchange.

But it is inviting communities along a 6km stretch earmarked for $53.5 million of property purchases, road widening and bus detours to attend urban design presentations next week at the Mt Roskill, Balmoral and Valley Rd shopping centres.

Consultants EDAW Gillespies and Jasmax have produced a draft concept plan to improve the "streetscape" with more than $5 million of lighting, trees, sculptures, outdoor furniture and information pods.

Displays at the presentations will include drawings, information and ideas about types of trees to be planted, the use of open space, paving, parking, and pedestrian and vehicle connections.

Closely spaced streetlights and specimen trees are proposed for "village" shopping centres and taller varieties for other parts of Dominion Rd, although care is being taken to ensure they do not block out its sweeping views of volcanic cones and the wider landscape.

The council has a 12-year designation entitling it to widen much of Dominion Rd by between 1m and 2m, and to divert buses behind the Valley Rd and Balmoral Rd shops to minimise the destruction of buildings.

An exception is The Warehouse, which is in the way of the Balmoral deviation due to be established towards the end of the designation period. It will have to be redeveloped.

The Mt Eden Foodtown supermarket will survive the passage of buses in about six or eight years through what is now its carpark, but some nearby buildings such as Greenpeace's headquarters across Valley Rd will have to go.

Diverting the buses behind the shops will reduce the need to widen Dominion Rd round key intersections, leaving more room for either street parking or wider footpaths.

Such a route could eventually be used by a light-rail system connecting to the western line at Mt Eden and a Southdown to Avondale line that Transit is leaving room for next to its motorway extension.

The overall Dominion Rd project will directly affect 290 properties - 214 residential and 76 commercial.

Most owners will simply be compensated for limited land loss, but the council has already spent about $5.5 million buying more than half of the 20 properties that will have to be demolished.

Despite the expected increase in traffic, council principal transport planner Denis Mander said yesterday that just one general-purpose vehicle lane would remain in each direction.

The main change would be a widening of bus lanes, to up to 4.1m, including a possible 1.2m to be marked off specifically for bicycles.

* The design display will be open from 11am to 3pm on Thursday next week at the Mt Roskill shopping centre, and on the Friday and Saturday at the Balmoral and Valley Rd shops. It can also been viewed at the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall from Monday, October 17, to Thursday, October 27. The consultation period ends the next day.