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A series of road projects known as the Western Collector, which create a bypass of State Highway One through the west of Warkworth, will not be completed for at least another decade.
Construction of the long awaited Mansel Drive bridge is scheduled to start next year.
The $3.2 million project will link Hudson Road to Woodcocks Road, providing an alternative route through the west of Warkworth. Currently traffic travelling between Hudson Road and Woodcocks Road has to detour through a ford on Falls Road, which cannot be used by heavy traffic.
Construction is scheduled to start in August next year, to be completed in June 2017.
Auckland Transport (AT) is currently reviewing the final design and tender documentation.
Under the 2006 memorandum of understanding between the former Rodney District Council and NZ Transit (now NZTA) the bridge was to be completed by 2012.
However the project has been repeatedly delayed following the creation of the Super City.
AT media spokesperson Mark Hannan says the project was developed to the detail design phase a couple of years ago but AT could not proceed to construction phase due to lack of funding.
Local Board member Steven Garner says the completion of the bridge will have a huge impact on the development of Warkworth.
“I believe the delays to this project is one of the drivers for the scatter gun development of the town. With the Mansel Drive bridge in place a more orderly and structured development of industry and commerce along that corridor would be encouraged. I believe that this would be hugely beneficial for Warkworth in the longer term.”
The bridge is the first step in the Western Collector project, which creates a bypass of Warkworth by extending Glenmore Drive and Morrison Drive through to State High Way One, near the intersection of McKinney Road.
The route creates an alternative for traffic heading to the industrial estate, avoiding the traffic lights at the Woodcocks Road intersection and diverting heavy traffic away from Mahurangi College.
Under the memorandum, the full Western Collector route was meant to be finished in June this year, as well as significant improvements to the Hill Street intersection.
However AT has not allocated any funding to build the roads in the next decade.
