‘‘Obviously, traffic has increased significantly and, personally, I think we need the Cross Valley Link.’’
Big-name retailers bring hordes of customers and business to Petone but they have also created a tricky traffic conundrum.
Jackson St, which had become a major problem.
‘‘Obviously, traffic has increased significantly and, personally, I think we need the Cross Valley Link.’’
A link road, taking traffic from Seaview and Wainuiomata in the east to SH2, has been talked about since the 1950s, but remains no more than a distant possibility.
Leonie Dobbs heads the local retailers’ organisation. She said congestion was having a detrimental impact on businesses.
Frustrated shoppers and diners, were being put off by the long delays, especially on a Saturday, and were heading to other destinations.
Recent road works had also highlighted how bad the congestion had become. Although the work covered only a small section of the main street, she said the flow-on effect for retailers was significant.
Some had suffered a marked downturn as shoppers stayed away and buses got caught in the congestion.
‘‘Couriers would not even deliver flowers for people’s birthdays.’’
Take a drive to Petone on a Saturday between 10am and 2pm and it is a good bet that you will face gridlock.
It is a situation that frustrates locals of the Lower Hutt township and raises serious questions about council planning.
In recent years, Petone has undergone a major transformation. Big-box retailers have flocked there at the same time that the area’s cafe scene has taken off. Throw in a heap of new apartments that do not always have enough parking and it is a recipe for congestion.
Richard Warwick is one person who has first-hand experience of how bad the traffic is.
He lives in Riddlers Cres, a street featuring rows of historic cottages.
Residents live next to Kmart, which opened last year to large crowds, and complaints of traffic chaos.
Locals put up with cars parking over driveways and people parking all day in a street where some houses have no offstreet parking. The nearby traffic lights make it almost impossible to turn right and head to State Highway 2, he said.
Warwick believed the council should have done a lot more planning to make sure the roading infrastructure could cope.
He joined other residents to complain, but said the council had committed to attracting retailers like Kmart and Bunnings, and fixing the resulting congestion did not appear to be a priority.
Council general manager Kim Kelly had overseen much of the planning for Petone over the last decade. She rejected the argument that there had been a lack of long-term planning and points to a District Plan change that opened the door for big box retailers.
It was subject to extensive public consultation and more than 250 submissions had been received. The intention had always been to encourage retailers like Kmart and Bunnings to the western end of Petone, she said.
Petone is popular with retailers for obvious reasons. It is close to Wellington and there are large industrial sites that attract the likes of Kmart, which wanted to avoid buying lots of titles to create a site big enough.
Kelly pointed out that the troublesome Kmart intersection was designed by a qualified engineer. Roads in Petone are narrow and the engineer had to come up with a solution that fitted the existing space, she said.
As for the congestion that sometimes choked the roads, Kelly agreed it was not ideal, but noted that for much of the time, the roading network coped well.
The long-term solution for the Petone Esplanade was in the hands of New Zealand Transport Agency.
The Cross Valley Link and Petone Grenada link road would make a huge difference to Petone. The council supported both projects and although the cost of the Grenada link recently jumped from $270 million to $1.2 billion, Kelly was still hopeful that NZTA would one day build both roads.
In the meantime, Kelly believed that drivers will have to get used to the new reality that Petone is a popular destination.
She would also like to see a change of attitude towards public transport and biking. Lower Hutt residents seemed reluctant to move away from cars, but Petone has a good bus and train network, Kelly said.
Mayor Ray Wallace agreed there had been nothing accidental about the way Petone had developed in the last few years.
The key to reducing congestion on the Esplanade is the link road to Grenada, which he remains committed to.
Wallace conceded that the addition of Kmart on Hutt Rd had caused problems, but said the council had changed the original design of the nearby intersection and that had improved the situation.
Leonie Dobbs, who heads a retailers’ organisation, said there was no doubt that congestion was bad for businesses and that locals were fed up.
Petone’s success had been accidental, but the impact of increased congestion on existing retailers had been huge, she said.
Traffic on the Esplanade was forcing trucks on to Jackson St, making it hard for people to find a park and putting people off coming back, she said.
So what is the answer? Dobbs believed that was a question that no-one currently has the answer for. There are too many cars on the roads and with projects like the link roads years away, at best, the situation can only get worse.
She wanted all the planners to ‘‘sit down together’’ and produce a master plan for growth in the entire Wellington region.
State Highway 2 acted as a chokepoint for traffic leaving Petone and she supported bold measures like adding extra lanes or a tunnel to increase its capacity.
One person who knows first hand about the impact of traffic is Robyn Attewell from Dandelion Cafe on Jackson St.
‘‘We get a lot of people who come in and say they have tried before on other days, but with the traffic on Jackson St, they just gave up.’’
Like Dobbs, she was not sure what the answer was but she was keen to see a ban on trucks on Jackson St and the link road, taking traffic off the Esplanade built as soon as possible.
‘‘That has been in the pipeline for how long? Fifty years?’’