Transit Regional Office Auckland

30 April 2004

MEDIA RELEASE

Temporary traffic flow changes to damaged Te Atatu motorway overbridge

Transit New Zealand is temporarily reconfiguring the lanes on the Te Atatu motorway overbridge to allow traffic to flow smoothly across the bridge while it is repaired. It will also enable the heaviest traffic – from Te Atatu South – to access freely the city-bound on-ramp to the Northwestern Motorway.

The bridge was damaged earlier this week when a digger on a transporter hit the underside of the beams supporting the western side of the bridge. As a result, the outer north-bound lane of the bridge has since been closed to all traffic and will remain closed until the bridge is fully repaired in about four weeks time.

To keep traffic flowing more freely during the closure, Transit will divert traffic between Te Atatu South and Te Atatu North across the inner southbound lane of the eastern side of the bridge during repair work. This will involve constructing a temporary lane connecting the two inner lanes. The temporary road layout will be well defined with cones, water filled barriers and sign posting. Because some loops that control the signal phasing cannot be used with the reverse flows, an operator will manually adjust the signals to even out flow demands. Weather permitting, the target is to have the new layout in place for Monday morning traffic.

“These measures will allow traffic wishing to enter the motorway from Te Atatu South to use the present single open lane on the western side of the bridge to access the city-bound on-ramp to the Northwestern Motorway,” says Transit Director Strategy & Traffic Terry Brown. “At the same time it will enable traffic to move freely between Te Atatu South and Te Atatu North. Traffic heading south will be restricted to a single lane.”

Mr Brown says there may be some restrictions on the right turn from Te Atatu North to the motorway toward Lincoln Rd and requests motorists to take care that waiting traffic does not block the single through lane. He says the lane adjacent to the damaged lane will also be closed periodically overnight to facilitate the repairs work.

“We apologise for the impacts that the closure of the lane has had on traffic over a wide area of Waitakere City and will use our best endeavours to ensure that all the people and businesses located in Te Atatu North are not seriously inconvenienced as a result of this bridge strike,” says Mr Brown.

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