Roadworks cause commuter chaos

Traffic chaos caused by roadworks on one of Auckland's busiest commuter routes, Hillsborough Rd, has prompted emergency measures to squeeze vehicles through neighbouring streets.

The closure of a section of the road to eastbound traffic has caused queues of more than 4km to Blockhouse Bay and clogged alternative routes for drivers desperate to reach the airport and other southern destinations.

Vehicles spilling into Dominion Rd and Mt Albert Rd delayed Stagecoach buses by up to an hour on Tuesday, the first full day of a traffic diversion, at a time when the region's transport system was already under strain from the return of tertiary students to lectures.

Traffic is being diverted off Hillsborough Rd, down Whitmore Rd and up a rise through Richardson Rd, before rejoining Hillsborough Rd.

National Distribution Union secretary Laila Harre told the Herald it took her an hour and 20 minutes to drive to work from Te Atatu to Onehunga along Mt Albert Rd on Tuesday, and her husband missed a flight because of difficulties reaching the airport.

Stagecoach managed to ease the crisis at least for its passengers yesterday by starting some bus services short of the roadworks, and will add extra vehicles and drivers to Dominion Rd runs this morning.

Operations director Warren Fowler said this had required special dispensation from the Auckland Regional Transport Authority to allow several older buses back on the road.

Auckland City Council, which is responsible for $1.3 million of rebuilding and resurfacing work over the next eight weeks towards the eastern end of Hillsborough Rd, is meanwhile preparing to designate an emergency clearway along a southern sector of Dominion Rd. This will allow two lanes of traffic between the roundabout on Richardson Rd and a bus lane which starts just south of Mt Albert Rd.

Legal requirements mean the clearway will not be available until Monday, but the council has asked roading contractors to put signalling staff on the roundabout and to paint the eastern end of Richardson Rd to create two lanes of traffic on the rise leading back to Hillsborough Rd.

This will entail removing a traffic island at the intersection.

Council network assurance manager Barry Williams said engineers had hoped to start the repair work earlier while there was less traffic, but parts of the road foundation had been found to be very weak and this had called for a more detailed design effort.

Mr Williams also disclosed that a start to the work was attempted briefly two or three weeks ago, but a local concern about the initial disruption sent traffic management planners back to the drawing board.

Delays at Hillsborough Rd's intersection with the Southwestern Motorway had already been exacerbated by the movement of trucks moving earth for the $170 million Mt Roskill motorway extension project.