Ask Phoebe: Greenlane, Green Lane, what's with that name?

Traffic slowly resumed to normal on the Southern Motorway at Green Lane. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Alice has completed the first 250m on her south-north journey.

While sitting aboard a train at Greenlane station I noticed that the railway signage spells Greenlane as one word. But the motorway signage renders it as two - Green Lane.

A look around the area showed that road name signage also uses 'Green Lane'. The Papers Past web site shows that the area has been known as Greenlane (one word) since the mid-19th century.

It appears that the suburb's name might derive from the family surname Greenlane which is itself a derivation of Greenland. So it appears that Auckland Council might have some explaining to do.

John Milligan, Kohimarama.

I am happy to do that on their behalf.

It's an anomaly - the suburb is Greenlane (one word), the roads are Green Lane East and Green Lane West. Despite the suburb being Greenlane, the original spelling of the lane was Green Lane, and was named from the lush appearance of the countryside thereabouts. Ah, when all of this was fields ...

Prompted by a recent article on transportation, I wonder if you would consider posting a regular, say fortnightly, progress report on the boring machine Alice as she grinds her way towards Waterview? Bruce Kay, Epsom.

I can't promise to issue fortnightly bulletins, but I can report that Alice reached an important milestone last week - she completed her first 250m on her south-north journey from Owairaka to Waterview. She only has 2150m to go to finish the first run.

Alice, the tunnel-boring machine (TBM) will build twin 2.4km-long tunnels, both 13.1m in diameter, over the next two years to connect Auckland's Southwestern (SH20) and Northwestern (SH16) Motorways as part of the city's Western Ring Route.

Construction is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2015 and the tunnels open to traffic in early 2017.

NZ Transport Agency's Auckland highways manager, Tommy Parker, says Alice has not encountered any show-stopping issues on her journey so far. She is currently around 25m below the surface. At her deepest - around the middle of the tunnel - Alice will be 40m below the surface.

Mr Parker says the Transport Agency is confident that Alice will reach Waterview in late September as scheduled, completing the project's southbound tunnel. At Waterview, she will be turned around and then launched southward to build the second (northbound) tunnel.

When the TBM reaches the 500m mark next month, it will take a break of approximately three weeks so that a special gantry can be assembled inside the completed section of tunnel. The gantry will be used to put in place a culvert that will run below the level of the motorway and carry the mechanical and electrical services needed to operate the tunnel.

The culvert installation 200m behind the TBM will allow work to start on the first stage of motorway construction. This will, in turn, provide access for the construction of the first of the 16 cross-passages connecting the twin tunnels, and the later installation of tunnel lighting and ventilation systems.