Suburbs see road relief ahead

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Just the mention of Reeves Rd sends commuters from the eastern suburbs into seething road rage.

The intersection of Reeves Rd with Ti Rakau Drive is one of the worst bottlenecks in Auckland. In rush hour, cars are backed up hundreds of metres. It takes as many as seven or eight light changes to get onto the Pakuranga Highway.

Closer to Auckland, furious residents see large trucks rumble along Kepa Rd and Kohimarama Rd, past Selwyn College, St Thomas' Primary School and the ASB Stadium.

It is little wonder that there is huge support for the $460 million eastern highway among the heavily populated eastern suburbs, where mayors John Banks and Sir Barry Curtis are revered for driving the six-lane highway project.

Just listen to Shirley Warren, chairwoman of the Bucklands and Eastern Beach Residents and Ratepayers' Association: "John Banks said it would happen and when he says things will happen, they generally do. He is a doer."

The Eastdor consortium of consultants planning the highway says the need is driven not only by the failings of the present transport network but huge population and employment growth along the route.

Over the next 20 years, suburbs along the route will increase in population by an average of 45 per cent. Along Ti Irirangi Drive in the southeast, homes for 50,000 people will be built at Flat Bush over the next 15 years.

Judging by Aucklanders' love affair with cars, most of these new homes will have two or more vehicles.

Alan La Roche, chairman of the Howick Bay Community Board, says the homes of the 48,000 people in his ward commonly have two, three or four cars each.

He said that 15 years ago, it took 30 minutes to drive from Howick to the city. Now it takes a minimum of 50 minutes and up to 90 minutes in rush hour. Eastdor says one of the biggest benefits of the highway will be reduced congestion on suburban streets.

The Pakuranga Highway - the busiest suburban road in New Zealand - carries 50,000 vehicles a day to the notorious bottleneck at Ti Rakau Drive.

Mr La Roche said the new ferry service from Half Moon Bay to the city had been a huge success, but the numbers of commuters - 3000 to 4000 a week - made no difference to the clogged roads.

"In Howick, we can only see advantages [from the eastern highway]. There are no disadvantages. We are not going to have the extra noise, the volumes of traffic shooting past our doors or lose any houses."

Mike Padfield, chairman of the Pakuranga Community Board, said the hard question was whether the short-term costs of the project were worth the long-term gains. He faces angry residents, 200 of whom will lose their homes to widen Ti Rakau Drive from four to six lanes.

"The plus side is that at the end of the day it will make for a far more workable community," he said.

"Side roads will be freed up and it will suck a lot of traffic volumes out of the area."

Access to schools such as Edgewater College on the southern side of Ti Rakau Drive will be improved with new pedestrian flyovers or underpasses across the busy highway.

The highway will also be a godsend for Kohimarama residents such as Bev Montgomery, who says the volume of heavy traffic is dangerous.

She once counted more than 100 heavy trucks along a stretch of Kohimarama Rd over a four-hour period.

Council figures show that up to 1300 trucks a day use Kepa Rd, of which about 3 per cent come from the Port of Auckland. Many of the vehicles are old, smelly and laden with empty containers which make a big racket.

Bev Montgomery gets furious at the "one-eyed and selfish" Terry Gould, the Parnell resident leading the Stop the Eastern Motorway community group. She says members of Stem are more concerned with their precious views when lives are at risk every day because of congestion.

A partial solution to trucks using suburban and arterial roads will come with the construction of a new link from the Southern Motorway just north of Otara to an expanded industrial parkland at East Tamaki. Jobs there are expected to double from 17,500 to 37,000.

Stephen Selwood, the Automobile Association northern regional manager, said the overwhelming number of Aucklanders supported an integrated road and public transport solution for the eastern corridor.

He said a survey of 801 Aucklanders two years ago showed 90 per cent support for the completion of the eastern corridor with a mix of public and private transport. Only 9 per cent supported a motorway-only option and 4 per cent a rail-only option.

Feature: Getting Auckland moving

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