Newsletter #27 - 23 March 2017
If you haven’t lodged your submission on the indicative route of the Warkworth to Te Hana Road of National Significance, please send it to: warkworth-wellsford@nzta.govt.nz before the end of the month. Our last newsletter (http://bit.ly/2o2i64W) contains the details why the motorway connections for Warkworth aren’t good enough.
(NOTE: This newsletter contains a lot of graphics. To see an enlarged version, please view the gallery at the footer of this newsletter.)
FALSE HOPE
If you thought Sunday’s gridlock was bad, the NZTA’s revised traffic projections don’t offer any good news. The motorway, Matakana Link, and Western Collector aren’t the magic cure that will eliminate congestion. In many ways, however, they will make matters worse.
The NZTA evidence for the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway included these charts:
What stands out to you? Besides the bizarre prediction that travel times won’t deteriorate between 2009 and 2026 (when the table below contradicts this), isn’t it odd that the motorway junction to the north of Warkworth would increase journey times between Warkworth and Wellsford at Holiday Start and between Wellsford and Warkworth at Holiday End?
Currently, Johnstone Hill Tunnels drip-feeds northbound traffic to Warkworth and the Hill Street intersection drip-feeds southbound traffic. Effectively, the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway moves the bottleneck from Johnstone Hill Tunnels to the motorway terminus north of Warkworth.
But the roundabout at the motorway junction does more than that. Northbound Warkworth traffic wanting to head to Wellsford must give way to southbound State Highway 1 traffic wanting to turn right towards the motorway. Conversely, southbound State Highway 1 traffic wanting to head towards the motorway must give way to motorway traffic heading towards Warkworth.
Considering Wellsford traffic southbound to Warkworth has its own sliplane, we conclude that the charts have their labelling back to front.
Minor mistake you ask? Throw in the revised projected traffic growth for Warkworth and the tables turn.