Te Atatu Rd: Is there an end in sight?
What is busy, often blocked and dotted with orange cones?
Full marks if you guessed Te Atatu Rd in west Auckland - but the end may be in sight.
The Western Leader was invited for a tour of the road by Auckland Transport (AT). Also present were Higgins staff, National’s list MP for Te Atatu Alfred Ngaro and AT spokesperson Dai Bindoff.
AT said they had also invited residents for the weekday walk through, but none turned up.
Residents, commuters and Te Atatu Rd businesses had been vocal about their displeasure with the roadworks, many questioned why the roadworks had taken so long and said the project had not been well handled.
They complained lengthy delays.
The Te Atatu and Edmonton Rd corridor upgrade project was expected to be completed between 18-24 months. It began in August 2015 and the initial end date was announced February 2017. But last year AT said it would need to go full term and was going to end in August 2017.
Bindoff said the project will wrap up in the ‘‘middle of the year’’.
He said it’s time to give people their road back, and he knows they are keen to have it back. about
AT had earlier said a reason the roadworks did not finish in February 2017 was because there were numerous services underground, and the maps they had were often inaccurate.
Bindoff explained this was not going to be a problem for future construction on Te Atatu Rd.
‘‘We have dug a trench and put the services in that trench and marked exactly where they are and marked where one lies in relation to the other - electricity, gas and water so in future there won’t be this kind of uncertainty.’’
There was another reason Te Atatu Rd looked like a ‘‘building site’’, he said.
When AT planned for the project it was envisaged work would be completed in stages.
However, Higgins’ tender, which proposed an ‘‘end-to-end’’ approach, was accepted.
This meant the entire road would be dug up from one end to the other.
The method was accepted by AT for being more efficient, Bindoff said.
Residents had told the Western Leader a four-week closure on Covil Ave, off Te Atatu Rd, was adding to the traffic delays.