Father's Day SH1 southbound closure hurts retail

Father's Day SH1 southbound closure not good for retailers

"The closure of SH1 southbound all day Father's Day will create all sorts of problems for Newmarket and will be bad for business," says Cameron Brewer, chief executive of the Newmarket Business Association.

NZTA has advised that the southern motorway will be closed southbound from Gillies Avenue to Greenlane from 5pm on the Saturday 4 September, all through Sunday and into the early hours of Monday morning. During this time, final preparations will be made to open the new southbound viaduct.

"We are big supporters of the massive $215 million project. However we do have serious reservations on behalf of our business members and their staff about the all-day closure on Sunday 5th - Father's Day.

"We believe the SH1 detour off the Gillies Avenue off-ramp, down Mortimer Pass, onto the southern end of Broadway, and back on at St Mark's Road will cause serious congestion and backlog along SH1. Mortimer Pass struggles to cope on a busy weekend as it is."

Mr Brewer is pleased that NZTA will undertake a massive marketing campaign to encourage non-essential traffic to keep clear of the southern motorway and all efforts will be made to divert SH1 traffic southbound well before they get to Gillies Avenue.

"Even if they convince 75% of the 80,000 southbound cars to keep off the motorway or get off before Gillies Avenue, there's still 20,000 cars trying to get down Mortimer Pass. That is our concern. This is set to cause serious backlog and mayhem. I can't understand why they need to push it all through a Newmarket side street. I would have Grafton Gully as the last off-ramp and maybe punch through the barrier strip and run one southbound lane down the northbound. It would be slow but at least you'd get some flow."

"Retail is tough enough at the moment so the timing's not good, particularly when you consider a lot of our trade is done at the weekends. What's more Father's Day is normally a busy for Newmarket businesses and we want to keep it that way. We'll be encouraging people to still come to Newmarket on Father's Day by using our many arterial roads. Our cafes and restaurants, and of course shops, will all be rolling out the red carpet," says Cameron Brewer.

ENDS

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