Offramps to make life easier

Reinforcing steel is fixed on one of the new offramps. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Auckland motorists will soon be using two new northbound motorway offramps on to Nelson Street in the central city.

The off-ramps from the Southern and Northwestern Motorways will mean motorists will leave the motorways by lefthand exits, instead of the present ones that lead off from the right.

Engineers involved with the overall $195.4 million of projects in the Central Motorway Junction say this is a significant safety improvement.

The present Northwestern and Southern offramps to Nelson St leaving the motorways from the right can mean many lane changes for motorists.

It also means a lot more traffic in the fast lane of both motorways, some of which may slow as it moves on to the offramp.

The new Northwestern offramp will be the first to open, planned for April 25 or a week earlier.

The change will be accompanied by signs to help city-bound motorists accustomed to many years of moving right.

The opening of the new Southern to Nelson St offramp, the city end of which is already clearly visible alongside the present off-ramp, is still up to three months away.

Details of these two projects include:

Northwestern Motorway offramp to Nelson St

The route

Northbound motorists will take a new lefthand exit near Newton Rd. Some distance from the exit this route will split into two - lefthand to a new route which eventually will lead to the Northern Motorway and Harbour Bridge and righthand to the existing Northwestern exit on Nelson St.

The new offramp route snakes round and down under the so-called old concrete Ramp B - built in the 1970s but never used except as a bus park.

It emerges alongside the present Northwestern offramp. Near Nelson St it will actually merge on to the old offramp so traffic will arrive at the present traffic lights.

Advantages

The initial advantage of this new offramp will be the added safety of lefthand exit.

Unfortunately, all traffic heading towards the Auckland Harbour Bridge (about 30 per cent of all traffic using the offramp) will still have to use this route.

It will still have to traverse Union St and Wellington St to the Wellington St on-ramp to get to the bridge. So don't expect peak time queues to lessen yet.

How long until drivers have direct northbound access from the Northwestern to Northern?

About the end of next year. This new route can already be seen on the left (northbound) in Spaghetti Junction in an advanced stage of construction.

The real problem is that the scale of works needed to provide all the planned connections to and from the Northern in the area down towards the Victoria Park Viaduct area will slow this new route's opening.

The work includes new routes from the Northern Motorway to the port and the like.

Because of the very narrow corridor available in the area completing these projects will require several temporary lane shifts for motorway traffic.

Southern Motorway offramp to Nelson St

Route

Northbound traffic will take a lefthand exit near the spot where Karangahape Rd crosses over the motorway.

The route then climbs to the point where it can now be seen on the left about to cross above the Southern-Northern motorway to Nelson St.

Its city end is very close to the present Southern offramp. Placing the final span of beams over the motorway joining the new structure with its northern end is imminent, although the project still needs a lot of work.

Advantages

Added safety from a lefthand exit from the motorway. It will also mean that the harbour bridge-bound traffic can use the two righthand lanes of the motorway without scrapping with city-bound traffic moving to the right, as happens now.

The new offramp is also being built so it widens approaching Nelson St, allowing more lane space and hopefully lessening delays.

The present Southern-Nelson St offramp will stay for emergency vehicle access.