Auckland Transport’s Director of Infrastructure and Place, Murray Burt is reassuring local residents that the decision to extend the full closure of Meola Road for an additional 10-12 weeks will reduce the time to complete the works by up to two months (delivering a saving of up to $400,000) and minimise the overall disruption felt by the community.

Meola Road was due to reopen this week with multiple stop-go closures still in place as work continues on a major upgrade project. However, analysis of traffic flows demonstrates that continuing the diversions that are already in place will result in faster travel times for traffic, because reopening Meola Road now would require single lanes with multiple stop-go closures, while the construction works continue.

The project has an 18-month construction programme Nov 2023 – Apr 2025, however the Meola Garnet Corridor completion will be brought forward to the end of February 2025.

“We acknowledge the frustration the late notice of this change has caused, but we want to reassure people that we are working closely with the community and businesses to manage the impact and complete this project sooner and at a lower cost,” Murray Burt said.

Waitematā Local Board Chair, Genevieve Sage says: “I know it’s frustrating that this has come at short notice, however the benefits identified show fiscal responsibility and will help to deliver the project faster and cheaper.”

Murray Burt said: “We were reluctant to extend the full closure any longer, however, based on opportunities identified by our team at the start of this year, there are compelling reasons to extend a full closure. These include estimates of:

• A 6-8 week saving in construction time for the Meola corridor
• A saving of up to $400,000 in traffic management and construction costs
• Improved traffic flows and faster point to point travel times by diverting traffic around the site rather than through multiple, single lane, stop-go closures.

“AT teams are working directly with local residents and businesses to ensure that acceptable alternatives are in place to help them manage the impact of the longer closure period and will closely monitor traffic flows too.

“We spoke with a range of local stakeholders and the local board chairs ahead of the announcement to ensure there would be broad support for this decision.”

Addressing needs of football club

“We are working closely with the football club to ensure we can enable access to their carpark during weekends where the construction programme allows.”

Full list of benefits identified from extended full closure:

Time savings

• This project has an 18-month construction programme Nov 2023 – Apr 2025.
• Meola Garnet Corridor will be brought forward to the end of February 2025.
• 6 to 8 weeks construction time saving on Meola Garnet portion of project
• Bring forward adjacent works. Pt Chev/Meola roundabout brought from Christmas 2024 to begin in August 2024. Garnet Rd works to commence in April 2024 rather than November 2024.
• Significant amount of work has been reprogrammed to be completed during the full closure that would have been completed under stop go closures under the remainder of the year.

Financial savings

• A saving of up to $400,000 in traffic management and construction costs

Other benefits

• Improved safety for construction workers – removal of potential vehicle / worker conflict.
• Improved safety for road users – drivers not required to navigate through a live construction site with all the inherent risks and constantly changing traffic management causing confusion for them
• Improved safety for local communities especially schools, football club and organisations.
• Improved access for residents of Meola Road. Adjacent residents supportive to stop through traffic during the extended full closure.
• Improved quality outcome for AT and the public through full width construction versus piece meal lane by lane construction.
• More consistent public transport timetable as not impacted by variable stop go closures.
• More consistent travel times and less disrupted travel times for road users – Traffic monitoring of real time data has shown that diversion routes will result in faster and consistent overall travel times for general through traffic.
• Pavement construction methodology revised where possible to use “mill and fill” with pavement recycling to reduce carbon emissions and further accelerate delivery programme.

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