Wellsford future hinges on new highway route

Concerns over whether Wellsford would die if bypassed by the proposed Puhoi to Wellsford highway were raised at a public meeting in the town last month.

The meeting was convened by the NZ Transport Authority which was seeking public consultation before detailed planning of the 38km new highway gets underway. Submissions on the project closed on August 2.

The new highway will be separate from the existing State Highway One, and is expected to pass to the east of Wellsford, with an interchange at the town. NZTA expects to come back to the community with a preferred route for the new road by November.

Around 40 attended the public meeting, with several voicing concerns that the town couldn’t survive without through traffic. One resident feared the town would become a forgotten backwater, particularly if the new highway passed too far from town for it to be visible to motorists.

Other concerns were that properties could be split in two by the road, with local farmer and contractor Steve Levet saying that he had already seen “men in orange vests” taking soil samples along Worthington Road, which borders his farm.

“We want to know what sort of impact this new road will have on landowners and what compensation they will receive,” he said.

Mr Levet said that taking the highway to the east of the town came as something of a surprise. “Whatever happened to the option of locating the road to the west, which many of us thought was preferred.”

Senior NZTA transport planner Paul Glucina said the main reason for taking the highway to the east of Wellsford was because of the projected future growth of Mangawhai. He said NZTA had not completely written off the western route option, but would need to hear “some pretty convincing” arguments for this from the community for it to be back in contention.

Alvon Greenwood said he felt cafe owners would prefer the western route as it would keep motorists closer to town. He also agreed with Steve Coop’s proposal that work should start at Wellsford and work south.

James Colville said that Wellsford usually got the “rough end of the stick” and had waited long enough for a bypass, with Warkworth getting one back in 1952. He also had concerns around falling property values.

“Just the mere suggestion of the eastern route has already frozen real estate prices on that side of town,” he said.
Mr Glucina said that as there will be an interchange at Wellsford this will facilitate growth and be good for business.
“Development will be encouraged by the fact that there will be a quicker, more direct route to Auckland and to the north.

“SH1 will remain to service properties with access along it and to provide an alternative route to the new highway, in the event of closure. This will mean less traffic using SH16, which was another reason why the eastern route around the town was more favourable.”

NZTA was keen to hear from locals regarding any sites of historical significance, or incidence of slips or flooding in the area, all of which would be taken into consideration when deciding on both the preferred route and where the new highway would cross the existing SH1.

NZTA communications and stakeholder manager Amanda Cosgrove said that feedback forms would be collated and summarised in a newsletter by next month. Further information sessions were planned for November, when NZTA hopes to have finalised the preferred route for public consideration. Before bringing the route back to the public, with individual property owners affected by the proposed highway.