KEY POINTS:
Newmarket's business association is urging motorists not to turn Auckland Domain into a "rat-run" by using it as an alternative route while Grafton Bridge is closed for a 14-month upgrade.
It wants the Auckland City Council to encourage traffic to use other routes - notably Khyber Pass Rd,
Parnell Rd or the Southern Motorway - for trips to and from Newmarket during the bridge closure, which began at the weekend.
Association general manager Cameron Brewer said it would be a real shame if the inner-city sanctuary of Auckland's oldest park became overwhelmed by traffic.
"This is the only sizeable public open space the people of Newmarket have close, and so we want it protected," he said.
The manager of the council's $43 million Central Connector busway project between Britomart and Newmarket, Graham Long, said yesterday that traffic would be monitored on all alternative routes in case management measures were needed.
But he did not believe the domain would be much of a short cut to most drivers, and was confident their trips would be served better by the main alternative roads.
Even so, trips between central Auckland and Newmarket along Khyber Pass Rd have become slower, as one of its two eastbound lanes is closed for the next year while Ontrack replaces a traffic bridge over the western railway line.
Traffic was heavy at times along Parnell Rd yesterday afternoon and steady through the Domain.
A line of 10 cars was waiting to turn left out of Lower Domain Drive into Stanley St, during a check by the Herald at about 3.30pm, although other parts of the park remained quiet.
Mr Long said he believed construction activities in recent months on other sections of his project, including Anzac Ave, and Park Rd outside Auckland City Hospital, had already prompted many drivers to alter their routes.
Although the bridge remains open to pedestrians and cyclists, it has been closed to all motor traffic.
Among the vehicles affected are ambulances, whose drivers are now using Grafton Rd as their main way of getting to the hospital from central Auckland.
A plan approved by the city council in its previous term - for the bridge to be reserved for buses and kept out of bounds to other vehicles from 7am to 7pm each week-day once the project is completed in early 2010 - is under review by officers after concern was raised by transport committee chairman Ken Baguley.