Eight hours of delays on SH1 between Pukerua Bay and Otaki
Wellington.Scoop
There’s been eight hours of major delays for northbound traffic leaving Wellington on State Highway 1 today
At 10.10am, the Transport Agency said that delays between Waikanae and Ōtaki were not expected to clear till 6pm.
Then at 11:55am, the agency said that congestion was building at Pukerua Bay and the major northbound delays between Waikanae Beach and Ōtaki were continuing.
At 2.25pm, northbound traffic was also heavy between Johnsonville and Churton Park.
At 3.20, problems were compounded by a crash at Te Horo, which caused new delays in both directions between Waikanae and Ōtaki.
This was the Transport Agency’s update at 4:20:
Traffic remains heavy across the Wellington network. Particularly heavy patches on SH1 are in both directions approaching Ōtaki, northbound between Mana and Pukerua Bay and northbound approaching Peka Peka. On SH2, there’s a queue at the Hutt Road on-ramp.
A Stuff journalist heading to Te Horo said he had moved 2 kilometres over the space of an hour. Motorist Liz Hay told Stuff they left Plimmerton roundabout about 12.45pm. By 2pm they were still “well south of Ōtaki”. “We’re from the South Island and have never experienced anything like it.” Another motorist, Greg Halford, said an hour and 45 minutes after leaving Wellington they were still 10km out of Ōtaki.
At 5.25, this was the advice from the Transport Agency:
Significant DELAYS remain on SH1 northbound between Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay and from Waikanae Beach to Peka Peka, as well as approaching Ōtaki in both directions.
By 6.30, the congestion was starting to ease – more than ten hours after it had begun.
Be even worse next year when traffic bypasses Pukerua Bay therefore reaching the “expressway” even sooner!
@ Graham CA: the jam begins where the Expressway ends currently. Our 1950s roads cannot cope with a population more than double the size of that time. Immigration of more than 1 million people since 2000 and a lack of investment in infrastructure produce this result.
@Trevor H. The growth in population over the last 20 years has been over 50% natural (600K). Between 2000 and 2019, net inward migration was only 470,000.
Passenger trains Wellington to Auckland on only 3 days per week remains an outrage. Even one train per day each way would be a significant improvement (but not acceptable of course). Surely this can be fixed instantly by ‘decree’ (with money attached). And yes – this will be disrupted when the electrification of the remaining bits are done – but please start now. We can accept such disruption in future when we know it is a short period.
@IanS, Child poverty, the housing crisis, 3 waters …. There are plenty of other calls on the Government’s coin. Kiwirail has also got its own priorities for any money the government gives it, with billions in deferred maintenance/needed upgrades to catch up on from the last 40 years. I don’t see passenger trains between Wellington and Auckland (The Strand) high on their list; heck they could only get the Hamilton train to run to Papakura which is not what you would call eminently attractive.
So how much more CO2 is generated from inadequate roading infrastructure and increased traffic congestion? In the last 50 years we have managed to double the number of motor vehicles on our roads (over 4 million) almost doubled our population (5 million) but barely grown the main roading network at all (not withstanding improvements of some roads) God forbid there is ever a mass evacuation need from Wellington (or Auckland) Government solution – 16000 electric vehicles for the public service over the next 4 years – yep, problem solved.