Commuters will have to endure road works in the Dome Valley until early next year due to delays in the project.
The Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has released an update following a community drop-in session held in Wellsford to address concerns from the public.
It says the project was due to be completed by the end of this year but has been set
back by “unexpected challenges” including difficult terrain.
The upgrades required more retaining walls than expected and a slip near Warkworth, caused by a storm, delayed works.
The project has been split into five stages. Two are complete while two are “65 per cent complete”. The remaining stage, near Wellsford, has been put on hold indefinitely. NZTA says the Wellsford end of the project is on hold because of geotechnical and “property access” challenges.
“We are currently redesigning stage one to use the existing road,” it says.
Works still to be completed include further wire barriers, right hand turning bays, road widening, chip sealing, planting and works for Vector.
The project has included replacing power poles with below-ground lines. NZTA says it has installed 70 kilometres of ducting underneath the 15 kilometre road.
At last month’s community drop-in session, northern commuters complained that the project appeared to have been done on an ad hoc basis with multiple incomplete sections with reduced speed limits.
NZTA responded that the project was broken into five stages which were being worked on concurrently to complete the project faster.
Another point of contention was the removal of two passing lanes near Warkworth, which Waka Kotahi says were not long enough to meet safety standards.
Instead, the lanes have made way for centre safety barriers.
NZTA says the new safety improvements across the project will reduce crashes by up to 35 per cent by providing vehicles with more room to recover if they lose control.
Seven people have died and 30 have been seriously injured in the Dome Valley in the last five years.
