Sign In / Register
Plans to build a four-lane access road from the Silverdale motorway interchange into the new Milldale development, via Dairy Flat Highway and Pine Valley Road, are causing safety and access concerns for local landowners.
Auckland Transport has served two notices of requirement on Auckland Council to upgrade Dairy Flat Highway and the Pine Valley Road intersection, as well as building a new section of road from approximately 250 metres down Pine Valley Road north across farmland to link more directly with Milldale, via a new roundabout that has already been built 150 metres along Old Pine Valley Road.
This would mean that around 200 metres of Pine Valley Road that curves northwest to the recently built temporary mini-roundabout at the junction with Old Pine Valley Road would be decommissioned and closed.
Last month’s Rodney Local Board meeting heard that three landowners most affected by the proposals had submitted a number of concerns, mainly about reduced or potentially hazardous access to their homes and land, but also around construction nuisance such as noise, vibration and dust, and the fact that a number of mature trees, including two totaras grown from seed and planted by one Dairy Flat Highway resident’s father more than 80 years ago, would be felled.
Local Board members voted to ask that safety concerns raised by residents be considered, that safe access for all vehicles, including horse floats and cattle trucks, be included in the final construction design, and that felling of the 80-year-old totara trees should be avoided “where possible”. They also expressed concern over a lack of walking and cycling provision in the widening and upgrading of Dairy Flat Highway.
The notice of requirement applications were “limited notified”, meaning that only adjoining landowners were consulted about the proposals late last year. A panel of independent commissioners will hear submissions and issue a recommendation to Auckland Transport.
A Milldale representative was contacted for comment but did not respond by the paper’s deadline.
