Stormwater project to hit traffic

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Five million car journeys into central Auckland will be disrupted for the next six months by work which starts today on a new stormwater drain around the Britomart site.

Two main roads from the eastern suburbs, Quay St and Customs St East, will be potential chaos spots while contractors lay a large drain to carry thousands of tonnes of polluted stormwater to discharge at Captain Cook Wharf.

Auckland City Council project manager Mark Kunath said motorists could expect delays during construction with traffic reduced from two lanes to one in each direction at times, and parking in the area severely limited.

To try to avoid havoc, work on Customs St East and Quay St will not be simultaneous, and contractors will stop on the main traffic routes in the busy lead-up to Christmas from December 6.

The work starting today will be on the Quay St and Britomart Place part of the project with the most disruptive job of crossing Quay St timed for after Christmas when there is less traffic.

Work on Quay St is due to be completed by the end of January.

About 30,000 vehicles a day use Quay St. A further 20,000 use Customs St East.

Customs St East, from Gore St to Britomart Place, will be reduced from two lanes to one in each direction for four months from January to April. This will disrupt some bus services and mean a relocation of bus stops along Customs St East.

Mr Kunath said the council had put up 11 warning signs and would provide regular radio updates to motorists about the work and alternative routes during the project.

The $4.5 million project has been four years in the planning and will concentrate most of the central city's stormwater in a new pipe wide enough to drive a car through.

The concrete pipe will replace a smaller brick culvert, which is about 100 years old and discharges into the harbour at Kings Wharf.

A plan to build a large settling tank to recover most of the pollutants before the stormwater was discharged at Captain Cook was cancelled because it was conditional on the old Britomart project proceeding.

Work has started on building a new 3m-wide outfall at Captain Cook Wharf, which will pump thousands of tonnes of polluted stormwater into the Waitemata Harbour.

The council is confident that it can remove most pollutants, which include lead, mercury and other heavy metals from runoff in the city, by dredging the seabed every five years.

After five years, the council estimates that there will be 2000 cu m of dredgings, or about 200 truckloads, which will be taken to a landfall or used by Ports of Auckland for further reclamation at Fergusson terminal.

The council is also spending $800,000 a year for 30 years to upgrade central city drainage.

Outfalls at the bottom of Hobson St, Albert St and Queen St will carry much lower volumes because of the diversion of pipes to Captain Cook. Sewage outflows will gradually be eliminated.