Commuter moves 250 metres in one hour

Left: Queen St on a normal day. Right: Custom St traffic yesterday. Photos / Paul Estcourt, Sarah Ivey

Parts of roadworks-ridden central Auckland have become so gridlocked this week that one woman says she travelled just 250 metres in one hour.

Cristin Boyd was picked up by her partner outside the downtown carpark on Customs St West at 5.05pm on Monday. After an hour in heavy traffic they had only managed to reach the Queen St traffic lights, about 250 metres away, she said.

"I think the traffic usually moves fairly well, it's kind of okay. But when it's jammed like that, that's just too much, it's ridiculous," the 31-year-old insurance consultant said.

Congestion on Customs St has worsened as Auckland Transport and Vector power company contractors carry out roadworks on neighbouring Quay St.

Ms Boyd moved to New Zealand 1 years ago and said if roadworks were carried out on a major thoroughfare in her native Dublin, the council would establish an operation called a "free flow".

"It's really normal to see traffic cops letting traffic through and the council do literally control traffic lights to make sure there's a free flow."

Ms Boyd, who lives in Mt Eden, was so shocked by the traffic she wrote an email of complaint to Auckland Transport.

She felt for people who had no choice but to travel through the congested area and said people in her office had complained of having to leave early to get to and from work.

Road contracting spokesman Mike Isle said he was surprised by Ms Boyd's experience as monitoring systems indicated traffic had only increased by around 10 per cent on Customs St compared to the same time last year.

He said he was unaware of any incidents on Monday and traffic data showed flows were normal.

"Other people may have that experience, but it's certainly not been our experience. As one of our monitoring efforts we have people actually drive through Customs St at various times of the day to determine what the travelling times are."

Auckland Transport had a central monitoring service that looked at all the major intersections in the central business district, and often adjusted traffic lights to reduce congestion, he said.

"And that has been employed with Quay St and adjacent intersections."

Last night at 5pm, the Herald found the traffic on Customs St West to be heavy but moving relatively constantly.

One bus had to wait for six traffic light cycles to travel roughly 150m between the downtown carpark and the Lower Albert St intersection, but cleared the next 100m to the Queen St intersection more easily.

Quay St is being rebuilt with pavement which Auckland Transport claims will have a 25-year design life because Vector has taken the opportunity to lay new electricity cables and ducts for its own use and telecommunications.

In December last year, Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney warned that disruption caused by roadworks two years ago on Quay St, which normally carried close to 30,000 vehicles a day, had been "a nightmare".

However, yesterday he said his office had not received many complaints about the roadworks which indicated the upgrades were being well managed.

"We're future-proofing the city by doing this," he said. "Getting it started between the Christmas period and New Year was the right thing to do. But there is no right time to do these things, and we have to just take this one on the chin."

The roadworks are expected to be completed by mid to late March, which Auckland Council transport committee chairman Mike Lee said was unacceptable.

"I just find it unbelievable that two years later ... they've done it again. And I'm amazed that they're allowed to get away with not only blocking up the road again, but doing it so slowly," he said.

"In any other major international city they would have to get this job done working as quickly as possible, working 24/7."