An aerial view of Warkworth's infamous Hill Street intersection. Photo: Supplied / Auckland Transport
A Warkworth transport group working to improve an intersection described as the worst in New Zealand says it's "appalled and insulted" by the reasons given for shelving the long-promised upgrade.
Warkworth's notoriously complicated Hill Street intersection was to have been replaced with two roundabouts in a project starting this year and jointly funded by Auckland Transport and NZTA.
However, it was revealed this week that NZTA had removed the project from its 2024-27 road funding plan, because it did not meet the priorities set by the new Government Policy Statement on Land Transport.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said that was because the Northern Motorway extension and the new Matakana link road had reduced traffic through the intersection, but also because the design included at least five new speed bumps and three sections of cycleway.
Brown said that did not align with government policy or his expectation that investment in transport infrastructure would get back to basics.
If Auckland Transport wanted to advance the project, they would need to redesign it, then re-submit it to NZTA to apply for co-funding, Brown said.
Dave Stott, who co-chairs the One Mahurangi Transport and Infrastructure Forum with MP Chris Penk, said he was "extremely disappointed".
"We were appalled by the minister's comments about having to redesign the intersection with particular reference to cycling and pedestrian access, given that we've had a process of design engagement with Auckland Transport and NZTA … In fact, we felt insulted.
"This process has been going on now for about six years. We've had a number of our own engineers working side by side with the engineers at Auckland Transport to come up with what we believe to be the most economic and most effective design for that intersection."
Stott, a former roading engineer, said a raft of groups and government agencies had been involved in coming up with an integrated transport plan for the town that took into account the needs of motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.
The cycleways had been designed to link up with cycleways planned by three new housing developments in the Hill Street area - Arvida, the Kilns project and Templeton - as well as with the Matakana Coastal Trail.
"So what we are doing is tying in to a network proposed by a number of other parties, but also taking account of the fact that there's probably going to be up to 10,000 people living in the northeast of Warkworth in future.
"They, in particular school kids, are going to have to come through that intersection, because all the schools are to the west or the south.
"So we're looking at huge safety issues for schoolchildren and cyclists to get in to Warkworth," Stott said.
While it was true the number of vehicles using the intersection had fallen since the motorway extension had been completed, Stott said projections showed that once the three housing developments had been built, traffic volumes would be even higher than they had been pre-motorway.
The Hill Street intersection funnels traffic from seven directions between the old State Highway 1, Warkworth's town centre, the boomtown of Matakana and coastal settlements such as Snell's Beach, using a muddle of traffic lights, give way and stop signs, a clear zone, and turning bays.
It is particularly unusual in that vehicles heading towards the town centre from the north have to pass through a queue of traffic at the traffic lights on Sandspit Road.
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