In a jam over gridlock
‘‘You might have waited two cycles at some lights before. Now you might be waiting four or five to get through at peak times.’’
Dave Macpherson Growth and infrastructure chairman
Drivers know them – the gridlock spots of Hamilton best avoided at rush hour.
Come home time, lines of cars start growing at the intersection of Anzac Parade and Anglesea Street on the southern edge of the CBD.
It’s slow going across Fairfield Bridge, too, no matter what side of the river you’re on. The mass of traffic backs up on either bank, either direction.
Those busy intersections are just few on the list of areas Hamilton City Council would like to improve – but it can’t afford to upgrade them all.
Councillors saw a ‘‘candidate list’’ of almost 60 transport projects at an October growth and infrastructure meeting – before the rates rise proposal.
‘‘The list of things that we would like to do is probably bigger than the funding that we have,’’ city infrastructure general manager Chris Allen said.
‘‘That’s the full list, or the candidate list of projects that we believe are all good projects . . .’’ Allen told councillors.
‘‘The task in front of us – and not today – is to whittle that list down to something we can afford through our 10-year planning process.’’
Options on the list included installing signals at the Heaphy Terrace-Boundary Road intersection in Claudelands, rerouting the free CBD bus, and upgrading Frankton’s King Street-Lake Road roundabout to address a crash risk.
But it’s not all about cars. Building a platform for future commuter rail to Auckland was suggested, as was creating a safe cycle route between the university and the city centre, and completing the Te Awa River Ride between Cobham Bridge and the south side of the city.
Council money for the projects would come through the Access Hamilton programme, which is generally for projects of less than $10 million.
But add up all the projects on the list and it would cost about
$385m over the coming decade. That’s more than $400 a ratepayer, growth and infrastructure chairman Dave Macpherson said after the meeting.
Council staff stripped it back to a possible alternative programme worth about $220m, meaning a city council contribution of approximately
$110m after NZ Transport Agency subsidies.
But Macpherson said a rates rise will be needed to make even a reduced programme happen – though future options include looking into Auckland’s idea of a regional fuel tax or pushing the Government for transport infrastructure loans.
Macpherson’s heard his share of traffic complaints, including about Te Rapa Road.
‘‘You might have waited two cycles at some lights before. Now you might be waiting four or five to get through at peak times – which in Auckland probably wouldn’t matter so much, but in Hamilton, people are getting quite irate.’’
As for the Anzac-Anglesea intersection, work will start this summer and focus on joining the bus lanes on either side of it.
As it is, turning buses often hold up two lanes of traffic, Macpherson said.
At Fairfield Bridge, council may be able to better co-ordinate traffic lights and separate northbound River Road traffic from those waiting to cross the bridge.
Then there are the 48,000 or so people from outside Hamilton who come to work in the city each day, stretching gateways at the city’s four corners.
Fixing that will require looking past single intersections, he said, on Cambridge Road leading into Hillcrest, Ohaupo Road leading to the hospital, and the Gordonton Road/Wairere Drive area.
‘‘You can fix one intersection and if you haven’t fixed the next one half a [kilometre] up the road . . . as soon as that gums up, it pushes back into the new intersection.’’
Northeastern spots were also on council’s candidate list: an upgrade at the roundabout by the Rototuna shops, work where Gordonton Road meets Thomas and Puketaha roads, and at Wairere and Huntington drives.
Other possibilities for council include bus and cycle priority lanes on Peachgrove Road, a shared bike pedestrian path across Whitiora Bridge, and bus interchanges at spots such as Chartwell Shopping Centre and The Base.
Councillors will decide how much money to put into the Access Hamilton Programme as part of the long-term plan process, due to start in December. The mayor’s long-term-plan budget proposal, which involves a 16.5 per cent rates rise, includes $220m for ‘‘our biggest improved transportation budget ever’’.