KEY POINTS:
Work has begun on a stretch of track that will be part of the transformation of Auckland's rail network.
Auckland City Mayor John Banks became a crane operator yesterday, lifting the first section of a rail overbridge at Khyber Pass Rd to allow track work to begin underneath.
OnTrack is rebuilding the Khyber Pass Rd and Park Rd rail overbridges to allow a second track to be built, running on the Western line between Newmarket and Boston Rd.
The work includes a new station at Boston Rd, further east so it is handy to potential new development at the Lion Breweries site on the corner of Mountain Rd and Khyber Pass Rd.
The driving lanes above will be closed and reopened one by one to keep disruption to a minimum, but Project Dart director Ted Calvert said there were bound to be delays in the area.
"We want to hit it hard because we don't want people putting up with it for any longer than they have to," he said.
The work will start on Boxing Day - so residents will have a hassle-free Christmas Day - and will end three weeks later on January 16.
Khyber Pass Rd has more than 30,000 vehicle movements a day and Park Rd, 15,000.
Together they provide one of the main accesses into Auckland Hospital and Auckland Domain.
The works have been carefully thought through so traffic disruption is minimised, said William Peet, acting chief executive of the New Zealand Railways Corporation.
"We carried out extensive modelling and worked closely with Auckland City Council to develop the traffic management plan and the decision to work on both at the same time was made to shorten the overall duration of the works," said Mr Peet.
The Newmarket-Boston Rd upgrade constitutes $50 million of the project's total $600 million cost.
Mr Banks said the project was vital to the economic transformation of Auckland.
"As part of the transformation of this city to be a first-class, international, competitive, world class city... we must have an integrated transport system," he said.
However, he said the council would bring together all the groups that were needed to ensure traffic disruption was minimal, ensuring for example that traffic lights were co-ordinated to avoid hold-ups.
"We know there are a lot of delays happening around the city and work to sort it out is being carried out urgently," he said. "We appreciate people's patience."
