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East-West transport project critical
Embargoed to 5am, 24 February 2012
Media Release
East-West transport project critical for improving Auckland’s freight distribution
The construction start on a section of the long planned Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) is a greatly welcomed says National Road Carriers Executive Director David Aitken.
“The $180 million Panmure section work launched today marks a serious start to priority improvements needed in Auckland’s transport network between the eastern suburbs and the SH20 Western Ring Route corridor at Onehunga.
The 8000 heavy freight vehicles (HCV) that cross the Pakuranga Bridge every day is on a par with the number of freight vehicles using the Auckland Harbour Bridge and higher than any other road in New Zealand, including the Government’s Roads of National Significance (RONS) projects.”
The overall network that serves the Pakuranga – Waipuna – Mt Wellington – Neilson St – Onehunga area is frequently heavily congested with end-to-end speeds of below 40kph.
“The end point of today’s construction start has to be a seamless and efficient transport route between AMETI and the southern motorway at Mt Wellington and along the Neilson Street corridor to link to SH20 at Onehunga.”
The case for a concerted effort to complete AMETI and the East-West corridor by 2020 is strong. When the existing high levels of daily congestion around Pakuranga - Mt Wellington - Neilson Street are coupled with predictions that the number of freight vehicles will double in Auckland by 2020, there is a compelling economic benefit case for declaring this Auckland’s number one priority project – a local government equivalent of a RONS, said Mr Aitken.
“I note that today’s launch focuses on the AMETI section of the network. For the full economic and social benefits of the multi-billion dollar project to be released it is vital that there is an uninterrupted construction programme for the total project to be completed by 2020. An efficient corridor for freight between SH1 at Mt Wellington and SH20 at Onehunga needs to be confirmed in the Auckland Council’s 10-year long-term plan about to be released, concluded Mr Aitken.
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