One Warkworth – Transport challenges

Few people think too much about roading and transport until something goes wrong and it affects their daily lives. Arguably, we’re a little more in-tune in Rodney North, given that a daily occurrence for many of us is dealing with the wondrous Hill Street intersection. It’s a subject that the One Warkworth Business Association is acutely aware of, given the growth of our town. We have a special interest group working on the issue and we see it as critical given the significant population growth in the coming years.

In addition to advocating for progress on Hill Street, One Warkworth has also championed the need for a southern interchange on the motorway extension, south of town.

Thousands of new houses will built to the south of Warkworth, and getting all of these additional people to drive through Hill Street to get onto the motorway to head south requires a solution.

A more immediate issue has been the parking challenges with the construction of The Oaks in the middle of Warkworth. The developer tried many times to direct contractors to park on land away from the middle of town, but it’s very hard to control people who aren’t employees. One Warkworth worked with the developer and has now opened up free all-day public parking on the ex-Toyota site on Whitaker Road. We’ve had a good response from retailers, and it would be great to see even more business owners and their staff using this parking, freeing up parking in the centre for customers. Our manager, Murray Chapman, has been walking through town trying to spread the word on this.

With The Oaks construction almost complete, we were asked to attend a meeting to talk about ‘pavement remediation’ on Neville Street. Thinking a footpath was going to be fixed, you could imagine our surprise when we learnt this meant a wholesale rebuild of Neville Street, which was also being planned while The Oaks development was still being built. Rebuilding one of Warkworth’s main streets in the middle of the largest construction project in the history of Warkworth – it was a recipe for disaster. Note to self for next time – pavement is not the footpath but the entire road in traffic engineer parlance! Evidently, the road is in bad shape and needs to be done – but ripping the whole thing up while The Oaks is still being built was not sensible.

One Warkworth engaged with AT and local contractor Wharehine. Much to AT’s credit, they have listened and Wharehine have done a great job in delaying and completely reprogramming the planned works to try to minimise the impact on businesses and the community. There will, no doubt, still be issues but starting the work at the top end of Neville St, and staying away from the bottom until the construction crews have finished at The Oaks, will certainly help.

Mark Macky, Deputy chair, One Warkworth
www.onewarkworth.co.nz