Puhoi Road Closures
Work is about to begin during the night to install large beams on the Arawhiti ki Pūhoi Bridge across Pūhoi Road. A small section of Pūhoi Road will be closed while this happens, signposted detours will be in place.
For safety reasons, all work will take place at night from 9:00 pm to 04:30 am when traffic volumes are lower. The road will be closed during the below dates and times.
Sun 01 Mar to Thur 05 Mar 2020
Road Closed – 9.00pm – 4.30am
Sun 08 Mar to Thur 12 Mar 2020
Road Closed – 9.00pm – 4.30am
Sun 15 Mar to Thur 19 Mar 2020
Road Closed – 9.00pm – 4.30am
Detours may add a considerable amount of time to journeys, people are encouraged to plan their travel for outside the closure hours where possible. Access will be available for emergency services throughout the closures.
Thank you for your patience while we get this important work done. If you would like to receive a daily email update, please contact info@nx2group.com. More information will be available at nx2group.com/news or on our Facebook page. Closure times will be clearly signposted along State Highway
The work is being managed by the Northern Express Group (NX2) which is responsible for financing, designing, building, maintaining and operating the motorway for up to 25 years.
“Health and safety is our highest priority during the works. We ask road users to reduce their speed and drive safely through the area. We thank road users for their patience while these works are carried out” said NX2’s CEO Vicente Valencia.
For safety reasons, all work will take place at night from 9:00 pm to 04:30 am when traffic volumes are lower. The road will be closed during the below dates and times.
Sun 01 Mar to Thur 05 Mar 2020
Road Closed – 9.00pm – 4.30am
Sun 08 Mar to Thur 12 Mar 2020
Road Closed – 9.00pm – 4.30am
Sun 15 Mar to Thur 19 Mar 2020
Road Closed – 9.00pm – 4.30am
Detours may add a considerable amount of time to journeys, people are encouraged to plan their travel for outside the closure hours where possible. Access will be available for emergency services throughout the closures.
Thank you for your patience while we get this important work done. If you would like to receive a daily email update, please contact info@nx2group.com. More information will be available at nx2group.com/news or on our Facebook page. Closure times will be clearly signposted along State Highway
The work is being managed by the Northern Express Group (NX2) which is responsible for financing, designing, building, maintaining and operating the motorway for up to 25 years.
“Health and safety is our highest priority during the works. We ask road users to reduce their speed and drive safely through the area. We thank road users for their patience while these works are carried out” said NX2’s CEO Vicente Valencia.
Hill Street Temporary Makeover Jan 2020 more info here
MINUTES MEETING:
Transport Forum
CHAIRED BY:
Chris Murphy, Chair of One Warkworth Business Association
Hon Mark Mitchell, MP
DATE:
Friday 14 February 2020
TIME:
8am – 9.45am
LOCATION:
The Boardroom, The Oaks Retirement Village,
Attendees:
Chris Murphy, Hon Mark Mitchell, Murray Chapman, Dave Stott, Maurie Hooper, Ellen Barrett, Glyn Williams, Burnette O’Connor, Kelli Sullivan, Kimdon Nguyen, Karsten Stevenson, Hueline Massey, Greg Sayers, Martin Dancy, Chris Penk
Apologies:
Ryan Bradley, Beth Houlbrooke, Marja Lubeck,
Welcome, Introductions and Apologies
Chris Murphy extended a welcome to everyone and outlined the rules of the meeting.
Minutes of last Meeting
Accepted by Dave Stott - Seconded by Roger Williams - All in favour
Introducing Chris Penk
Mark introduced Chris Penk, MP for Helensville who will be the new MP for this area once the new electoral boundaries come into effect. Mark will lose a major chunk of his electorate but will still be an advocate for the Warkworth area and remain hot on the issued that affect us. Chris Penk will be attending the Transport Forum from now on. Mark advised that he is very proud of this Forum’s achievements and acknowledged Chris Murphy for standing up with One Warkworth, Greg Sayers, NZTA and AT for their commitment.
Questions
Any questions that forum members have regarding the previous minutes will be included in this section in future.
Matakana Link Road
Update by Kimdon Nguyen.
Preferred tenderer has been identified. AT is hopeful to be able to award in February. A few side agreements are still to be got over the line. They are starting to prepare for the Environmental Court. A few appellants have indicated they are now prepared to sign.
They are also doing some advanced work for the project. Ie they have awarded a contract to undertake some environmental work – working with landowner to seek approvals.
4 lane option has been progressed and will be awarded subject to acquiring the land. Kimdon advised that if advanced work can be done and they award the contract by April, there is still a chance the project can be completed in time for April 2021 however they may need to seek approval for winter earthworks to get that done. They will do everything they can.
Burnette needs to meet with AT - Bronwyn - there is an evidence timeline set by the court which they want extended out a bit. Culvert / Wetlands is the issue of contention.
ACTION: Mark requested that Burnett communicate that all appellants are motivated to resolve this, and any Environmental Court action will delay this project beyond opening of the wider network. There is a lot of fatigue and zero tolerance from the community for not finding a resolution. This meeting needs to happen ASAP.
Discussion was held regarding the wetlands and the culvert
Martin asked if NZTA could confirm what is happening with the connection between the roundabout off the RONS and MLR. Works will be done now and there is an option to seal it later on.
ACTION: Burnette to flag this issue and seek an official response from NZTA.
Mark congratulated Kimdon on getting this project to where it is now.
Puhoi to Warkworth SH Extension
Rachel Herron not at the meeting today. Retain a holding status. Discussions are progressing but can’t confirm which configuration will be employed till all agreements are all closed out. Still working on an alternate configuration. The alternate solution will mean that the extension can still open on time.
Puhoi road closures. NX2 needs to install 42m long steel girders. They believe they can do one per night. Unfortunately, the correct message was not delivered initially and was corrected Road will be closed from 1-19 March 7pm-5am. Sun-Thurs night. They are talking to individuals around this and making sure contingencies are in place for first responders, mental health etc.
The first week will be stop/go.
Mark Mitchell offered to help with getting this message out if required.
Chris appreciated the high level of communication from NX2 throughout this whole project and will put road closure info on the One Warkworth website. Would be good to have early warning road signs advising alternate routes to avoid frustration by motorists during the closures.
Puhoi to Warkworth SH Extension – post Opening
Roger would like to pencil this in for detailed discussion at the next meeting. The reason is that we consider that once State highway is returned to a local highway, we will need to consider renewing the role of a tourist highway suitable for cars, pedestrians and cyclists. Has been promoted in the past as the Twin Coast Discovery Highway but there’s no way at this point that this could work with pedestrians and cyclists in parts. Intersections and dangerous passing lanes also need to be addressed. Roger will discuss at the WALG meeting. Martin Dancy added that the Matakana Coast Trail Trust will also discuss this at their meeting on Monday. NZTA has published some info in the last month or so which could be helpful. Google NZTA Twin Coast Discovery.
ACTION: Meeting attendees to circulate their thoughts on who should be involved in this discussion. One Warkworth would like to be involved with the road issues.
Warkworth to Wellsford State Highway
Subscribers were updated yesterday of the lodging in March of Resource Consents. Detailed business case is now published online. It is important if anyone has an interest in the financial justification for the project it is all in there. Once formally accepted, it will be loaded in full on the website and will be available at libraries in hard copy.
Could be lodged at around the same time as the landfill application so NZTA do need to make sure their customers understand the difference. Have identified the likely submitters and not expecting any out of the box issues.
Mark advised that the leader of the National Party announced that they will build and commit to the road all the way to Whangarei.
NX2
Well on track – the fine weather has helped with this. Half-way through earthwork volumes, still hoping to finish 7 bridges by October this year. Public open day will be held on 2 May.
Hill Street Intersection
CAG met on Monday – the following announcement was made:
“Work on the business case for improvements to the Hill Street intersection has been completed. The case has been recommended an option for improving the intersection, as well as providing a case for investing funds into the project.
It is recommended that the signalized intersection at Hill Street be turned into a five-arm roundabout, wit a three-arm roundabout constructed at the Sandspit and Matakana Road intersection. Cycleways and footpaths are also included in the proposal.
Auckland Transport have secured funds to start immediately on progressing the provisional designs, into detailed design, along with obtaining the consents and land needed to allow construction to begin. It is planned that the project will be ready to begin construction as soon as the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway and the Matakana Link Road projects have opened.
Funding for construction is being sought through the 2020/2021 review of the 2018-2028 Regional Land Transport Plan.”
Mark congratulated Greg Sayers for fast tracking this at Local Government level.
Chris advised that the cautionary note is that funding for the build is not allocated and they are taking steps to commit but in the event of the absence of funding being committed nothing will happen. There is still a need to keep pressure on this issue. Having funding for the design is only part of the funding we need. Roger also advised that the design that has been shown is a provisional design, and refinements are still possible. Dave and Roger would like to be involved in the final design.
ACTION: Press release to be sent to Mahurangi Matters – Chris
Press release to be put up on One Warkworth website - Claire
Western Corridor
Martin advised that the road around Summerset is not wide enough for the significant amount of traffic expected. This needs to be highlighted for discussion. Private plan change resolution is due out in the next week or two which will allow progress.
Southern Interchange
It was agreed that a meeting is required now to discuss any possibility of bringing this forward for funding for design, in order to meet our community’s requirements. This is with Supporting Growth. Need to seek update from them. Roger advised that Supporting Growth are trying to tackle the business cases for Western Corridor and the Southern Interchange. Melanie suggested it would be worth contacting Craig Mitchell at NZTA (craig.mitchell@nzta.govt.nz) Dave advised he will approach Craig Mitchell and ask for a meeting on the 2 issues. Burnette would also like to attend this meeting.
Traffic Modelling
Roger advised that a request for information was sent prior to Christmas but no response has been received yet. He will follow up.
Land Purchase for New Roads
Martin advised that he is in contact with land-owners involved in the proposed Sandspit Rd link and they are positive. They are keen to avoid the issues that MLR has faced and would like negotiations to be done in advance. Alignment is to go from the Matakana Link Road, through 2 holes in the golf course, through the chestnut farm.
Burnette also has a client who is interested in this project and would like an offline discussion with Martin to talk through the issues.
Traffic Buildup – Matakana/Sandspit Roads
Traffic is consistently backed up never further to the showgrounds except on long weekends. Matakana Rd always backs up to Claydon Rd or Ascension. Is it possible to divert traffic through Western link and change the lighting phasing at Hill Street to allow much greater flow from Matakana Road.
Dave Stott advised that the line of traffic back up into Matakana Road is getting worse every summer. It can take up to 2 hours to get back to Warkworth. Once the link road opens, the flow of traffic down Matakana Road will be freer. However, we should start thinking about the possibility of a Matakana bypass as the situation will only get worse with the opening of the MLR and the motorway.
ACTION: Martin to raise this issue with SGA.
Mahurangi River Tourism Opportunity
Murray Chapman has spoken with Peter Thompson re dredging of the river. They are very close to having to pull the pin due to lack of funds. The Mayor has advised he would look more favourably if this area was a BID. If the dredging has to stop, we will lose the land and the cost will increase to over $25m. There is urgency to act here. Marja has provided Murray with contacts for funding.
Chris advised that there is a roading component here. Bringing ferries to Dawsons Creek would lessen the burden on the roading network. This area is already the playground for Aucklanders and would e great for the area in a commercial sense. Any thought on how we can fund this project would be appreciated.
HOP Cards
Chris advised that HOP cards are distributed to the public trough the Information Centre which is run by One Warkworth. We receive no funding to provide this service. A commission is paid by AT for each card sold but it isn’t financially viable to continue. We met with AT last week to let them know we can’t continue at a loss and are optimistic they will at least cover the cost of this service as we don’t want to lose it.
General Business
Dome Valley Safety Improvements
Kelli advised that we need to communicate the fact that people must slow down round roadworks – in particular, along the Dome Valley where there are 5 sites currently. There will be 10 weeks of stop/go work coming up. Police are in the area regularly.
Questions to the Forum
Chris asked that any questions to the forum be circulated with the minutes. Restructure of the minutes to include a Questions section at the beginning.
Meeting closed 9.45am
Next meeting March - TBC
Transport Forum
CHAIRED BY:
Chris Murphy, Chair of One Warkworth Business Association
Hon Mark Mitchell, MP
DATE:
Friday 14 February 2020
TIME:
8am – 9.45am
LOCATION:
The Boardroom, The Oaks Retirement Village,
Attendees:
Chris Murphy, Hon Mark Mitchell, Murray Chapman, Dave Stott, Maurie Hooper, Ellen Barrett, Glyn Williams, Burnette O’Connor, Kelli Sullivan, Kimdon Nguyen, Karsten Stevenson, Hueline Massey, Greg Sayers, Martin Dancy, Chris Penk
Apologies:
Ryan Bradley, Beth Houlbrooke, Marja Lubeck,
Welcome, Introductions and Apologies
Chris Murphy extended a welcome to everyone and outlined the rules of the meeting.
Minutes of last Meeting
Accepted by Dave Stott - Seconded by Roger Williams - All in favour
Introducing Chris Penk
Mark introduced Chris Penk, MP for Helensville who will be the new MP for this area once the new electoral boundaries come into effect. Mark will lose a major chunk of his electorate but will still be an advocate for the Warkworth area and remain hot on the issued that affect us. Chris Penk will be attending the Transport Forum from now on. Mark advised that he is very proud of this Forum’s achievements and acknowledged Chris Murphy for standing up with One Warkworth, Greg Sayers, NZTA and AT for their commitment.
Questions
Any questions that forum members have regarding the previous minutes will be included in this section in future.
Matakana Link Road
Update by Kimdon Nguyen.
Preferred tenderer has been identified. AT is hopeful to be able to award in February. A few side agreements are still to be got over the line. They are starting to prepare for the Environmental Court. A few appellants have indicated they are now prepared to sign.
They are also doing some advanced work for the project. Ie they have awarded a contract to undertake some environmental work – working with landowner to seek approvals.
4 lane option has been progressed and will be awarded subject to acquiring the land. Kimdon advised that if advanced work can be done and they award the contract by April, there is still a chance the project can be completed in time for April 2021 however they may need to seek approval for winter earthworks to get that done. They will do everything they can.
Burnette needs to meet with AT - Bronwyn - there is an evidence timeline set by the court which they want extended out a bit. Culvert / Wetlands is the issue of contention.
ACTION: Mark requested that Burnett communicate that all appellants are motivated to resolve this, and any Environmental Court action will delay this project beyond opening of the wider network. There is a lot of fatigue and zero tolerance from the community for not finding a resolution. This meeting needs to happen ASAP.
Discussion was held regarding the wetlands and the culvert
Martin asked if NZTA could confirm what is happening with the connection between the roundabout off the RONS and MLR. Works will be done now and there is an option to seal it later on.
ACTION: Burnette to flag this issue and seek an official response from NZTA.
Mark congratulated Kimdon on getting this project to where it is now.
Puhoi to Warkworth SH Extension
Rachel Herron not at the meeting today. Retain a holding status. Discussions are progressing but can’t confirm which configuration will be employed till all agreements are all closed out. Still working on an alternate configuration. The alternate solution will mean that the extension can still open on time.
Puhoi road closures. NX2 needs to install 42m long steel girders. They believe they can do one per night. Unfortunately, the correct message was not delivered initially and was corrected Road will be closed from 1-19 March 7pm-5am. Sun-Thurs night. They are talking to individuals around this and making sure contingencies are in place for first responders, mental health etc.
The first week will be stop/go.
Mark Mitchell offered to help with getting this message out if required.
Chris appreciated the high level of communication from NX2 throughout this whole project and will put road closure info on the One Warkworth website. Would be good to have early warning road signs advising alternate routes to avoid frustration by motorists during the closures.
Puhoi to Warkworth SH Extension – post Opening
Roger would like to pencil this in for detailed discussion at the next meeting. The reason is that we consider that once State highway is returned to a local highway, we will need to consider renewing the role of a tourist highway suitable for cars, pedestrians and cyclists. Has been promoted in the past as the Twin Coast Discovery Highway but there’s no way at this point that this could work with pedestrians and cyclists in parts. Intersections and dangerous passing lanes also need to be addressed. Roger will discuss at the WALG meeting. Martin Dancy added that the Matakana Coast Trail Trust will also discuss this at their meeting on Monday. NZTA has published some info in the last month or so which could be helpful. Google NZTA Twin Coast Discovery.
ACTION: Meeting attendees to circulate their thoughts on who should be involved in this discussion. One Warkworth would like to be involved with the road issues.
Warkworth to Wellsford State Highway
Subscribers were updated yesterday of the lodging in March of Resource Consents. Detailed business case is now published online. It is important if anyone has an interest in the financial justification for the project it is all in there. Once formally accepted, it will be loaded in full on the website and will be available at libraries in hard copy.
Could be lodged at around the same time as the landfill application so NZTA do need to make sure their customers understand the difference. Have identified the likely submitters and not expecting any out of the box issues.
Mark advised that the leader of the National Party announced that they will build and commit to the road all the way to Whangarei.
NX2
Well on track – the fine weather has helped with this. Half-way through earthwork volumes, still hoping to finish 7 bridges by October this year. Public open day will be held on 2 May.
Hill Street Intersection
CAG met on Monday – the following announcement was made:
“Work on the business case for improvements to the Hill Street intersection has been completed. The case has been recommended an option for improving the intersection, as well as providing a case for investing funds into the project.
It is recommended that the signalized intersection at Hill Street be turned into a five-arm roundabout, wit a three-arm roundabout constructed at the Sandspit and Matakana Road intersection. Cycleways and footpaths are also included in the proposal.
Auckland Transport have secured funds to start immediately on progressing the provisional designs, into detailed design, along with obtaining the consents and land needed to allow construction to begin. It is planned that the project will be ready to begin construction as soon as the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway and the Matakana Link Road projects have opened.
Funding for construction is being sought through the 2020/2021 review of the 2018-2028 Regional Land Transport Plan.”
Mark congratulated Greg Sayers for fast tracking this at Local Government level.
Chris advised that the cautionary note is that funding for the build is not allocated and they are taking steps to commit but in the event of the absence of funding being committed nothing will happen. There is still a need to keep pressure on this issue. Having funding for the design is only part of the funding we need. Roger also advised that the design that has been shown is a provisional design, and refinements are still possible. Dave and Roger would like to be involved in the final design.
ACTION: Press release to be sent to Mahurangi Matters – Chris
Press release to be put up on One Warkworth website - Claire
Western Corridor
Martin advised that the road around Summerset is not wide enough for the significant amount of traffic expected. This needs to be highlighted for discussion. Private plan change resolution is due out in the next week or two which will allow progress.
Southern Interchange
It was agreed that a meeting is required now to discuss any possibility of bringing this forward for funding for design, in order to meet our community’s requirements. This is with Supporting Growth. Need to seek update from them. Roger advised that Supporting Growth are trying to tackle the business cases for Western Corridor and the Southern Interchange. Melanie suggested it would be worth contacting Craig Mitchell at NZTA (craig.mitchell@nzta.govt.nz) Dave advised he will approach Craig Mitchell and ask for a meeting on the 2 issues. Burnette would also like to attend this meeting.
Traffic Modelling
Roger advised that a request for information was sent prior to Christmas but no response has been received yet. He will follow up.
Land Purchase for New Roads
Martin advised that he is in contact with land-owners involved in the proposed Sandspit Rd link and they are positive. They are keen to avoid the issues that MLR has faced and would like negotiations to be done in advance. Alignment is to go from the Matakana Link Road, through 2 holes in the golf course, through the chestnut farm.
Burnette also has a client who is interested in this project and would like an offline discussion with Martin to talk through the issues.
Traffic Buildup – Matakana/Sandspit Roads
Traffic is consistently backed up never further to the showgrounds except on long weekends. Matakana Rd always backs up to Claydon Rd or Ascension. Is it possible to divert traffic through Western link and change the lighting phasing at Hill Street to allow much greater flow from Matakana Road.
Dave Stott advised that the line of traffic back up into Matakana Road is getting worse every summer. It can take up to 2 hours to get back to Warkworth. Once the link road opens, the flow of traffic down Matakana Road will be freer. However, we should start thinking about the possibility of a Matakana bypass as the situation will only get worse with the opening of the MLR and the motorway.
ACTION: Martin to raise this issue with SGA.
Mahurangi River Tourism Opportunity
Murray Chapman has spoken with Peter Thompson re dredging of the river. They are very close to having to pull the pin due to lack of funds. The Mayor has advised he would look more favourably if this area was a BID. If the dredging has to stop, we will lose the land and the cost will increase to over $25m. There is urgency to act here. Marja has provided Murray with contacts for funding.
Chris advised that there is a roading component here. Bringing ferries to Dawsons Creek would lessen the burden on the roading network. This area is already the playground for Aucklanders and would e great for the area in a commercial sense. Any thought on how we can fund this project would be appreciated.
HOP Cards
Chris advised that HOP cards are distributed to the public trough the Information Centre which is run by One Warkworth. We receive no funding to provide this service. A commission is paid by AT for each card sold but it isn’t financially viable to continue. We met with AT last week to let them know we can’t continue at a loss and are optimistic they will at least cover the cost of this service as we don’t want to lose it.
General Business
Dome Valley Safety Improvements
Kelli advised that we need to communicate the fact that people must slow down round roadworks – in particular, along the Dome Valley where there are 5 sites currently. There will be 10 weeks of stop/go work coming up. Police are in the area regularly.
Questions to the Forum
Chris asked that any questions to the forum be circulated with the minutes. Restructure of the minutes to include a Questions section at the beginning.
Meeting closed 9.45am
Next meeting March - TBC
Matakana Link Road Route
Drone Flyover June 19
One WW Transport Forum Minutes
| minutes_transport_forum_6_december_2019.docx |
| minutes_transport_forum_20_sep_19.docx |
| final_minutes_transport_forum_28_jun_19_.docx |
| final_ww_roading_infrastructure_forum_oct2018.docx |
| ww_road_infrastructure_forum_minutes_fri24aug18_final.docx |
| ww_road_infrastructure_forum_2018jun22_final.docx |
| one_ww_roading_infrastructure_forum_minutes_23feb18_final.docx |