City Roading Projects Speed Up Buses

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City roading projects speed up buses

April 17, 2003

The North Shore City Council is redesigning a key access route to the northern motorway and harbour bridge to reduce holdups for buses.

The intersection of Taharoto Rd where it provides access to Northcote Rd in the morning peak is to be widened to create an exclusive lane for buses turning right into Northcote Rd.

Work is expected to start this month, to be finished in June, at a cost of $98,000.

Joel Cayford, chairperson of North Shore City works and environment committee, says the change will help ease the Taharoto Rd bus bottleneck, which builds up regularly - and no land acquisition is needed to make the change.

"The change will be a short-term measure until the opening of the Westlake Bus Station, when buses will access the new busway via the Westlake Bus Station off an extension of Shakespeare Rd," Councillor Cayford says.

He outlined a number of other bus improvement projects around the city. "While most are small projects, they are important incremental steps in the city's overall plan to make bus travel faster, more convenient and often cheaper than private car travel.

"Already the bus priority lanes on Onewa Rd and Esmonde Rd have cut many minutes off bus travel times, and have even reduced travel times for private vehicles in some cases," he says.

The intersection improvements are just one of many currently being undertaken by North Shore City Council to improve traffic flows, and in particular to speed the progress of buses around the city by providing a number of bus priority measures.

Others given the go-ahead by the council were:

* An extension to the existing Esmonde Rd bus lane, which will help cut travel time down the road and onto the motorway and harbour bridge. Work should be completed in May.

* The entire route from the southern end of Forrest Hill Rd and including Wairau Rd and Taharoto Rd, which is the subject of an extensive investigation for upgrading and widening, and will include provision for exclusive bus lanes. It will account for the needs of Westlake Girls High School, industries in the area, as well as cyclists and buses. Services will need to be re-located, and work should start in the next financial year.

* A section of northbound bus priority lane on Forrest Hill Rd from Manutara Ave to the intersection with East Coast Rd. The part of the road affected has been sealed and road marking should start shortly.

* Provision of a morning peak (southbound) bus only lane on Forrest Hill Rd between Currey Cres and Nile Rd. Detailed design work is to be completed.

* A bus lane through the intersection of Northcote Rd and Ocean View Rd to allow quicker access to Northcote Rd. The work should be finished by end of July 2003.

* An additional lane for all traffic turning left out of Roberts Rd into Glenfield Rd will particularly benefit buses, currently held up by right turning traffic.

The council has also approved the advertising of a tender to design the five stations for the North Shore Busway, and to undertake the landscape design. The total cost of the stations will be approximately $20m, and are a vital part of the citywide improvements planned for public passenger transport in the city, says Joel Cayford.

He says a number of other projects to provide bus priority measures are planned for the next financial year, (2003/04, starting July 1, 2003).

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