Changes coming to ease traffic woes
The comments made by Lorraine Sampson in her letter to the Rodney Times (Sept 20, p5) present a rather misleading and inaccurate assessment of Silverdale’s transport options.
What she was referring to was her long held desire for an additional set of traffic lights to be installed at the bottom of the Silverdale Hill.
What she omitted to say, however, was that traffic engineers have repeatedly dismissed this proposal on the grounds that it would cause traffic to back up along the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and would be dangerous, with experts saying trucks would struggle to brake given the steep gradient..
Traffic lights here then are simply not viable in terms of both traffic congestion and safety.
What councillor Wayne Walker and myself have pursued instead is the Curley Avenue extension.
This project will extend East Coast Road at the existing intersection over the Weiti River to Silverdale, connecting the two halves and rendering redundant the need for yet another set of lights.
Money has been allocated in the Annual Plan for the purchase of land for this project and developers in the area are keen to expedite these works. The result will be a new roading network that will service new residential and commercial developments and enhance traffic flow around Silverdale.
Elsewhere the extension and upgrade of the Silverdale park and ride (occurring at the end of this year) and the Whangaparaoa dynamic laning trial will help. Ultimately though it is the construction of Penlink that will divert Whangaparaoa traffic and unlock congestion around Silverdale and Hibiscus Coast Highway. That is where efforts need to be concentrated.
What is also occurring further south of Silverdale are improvements to the Northern Motorway that are undertaken by NZTA.
These improvements (starting 2018) will include additional motorway lanes in both directions on the Northern Motorway between Greville Road and Constellation Drive (where congestion is at its worst for commuters).
There will be an extension of the Northern Busway from Constellation Bus Station to Albany Bus Station and a new bus station and park and ride at Rosedale Road. A further motorway link to the Western Ring Route will provide Hibiscus Coast residents with a faster route to the airport via the new Waterview tunnel.
Further to the north of Silverdale, getting cars off the road through services such as the Gulf Harbour ferry will help. At Gulf Harbour a new ferry contract is out to tender and next year the number of daily sailings year will being increase from 12 to 30. There’ll also be upgrades to the boats making the travelling time quicker and attracting more residents.
All these HBC transport improvements are important for Silverdale and indeed for all the whole Hibiscus Coast as they provide tangible improvements to the overall transport network in the here and now while Penlink is ultimately delivered.