TRANSPORT – NZTA UPDATE
W
elcome to 2015. I hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday break. This will be an exciting year for the Northern Corridor project as we continue to build on the progress we’ve made so far. Firstly, I’d like to thank those of you who attended our Community Open Days in November, emailed or phoned us, or have come to visit us at our Information Hub at 33A Apollo Drive. We’ve had a great response to our first round of engagement with over 500 people attending the open day and many others contacting us by email, phone or visiting the project office. So far we’ve received approximately 200 pieces of feedback on the project and these are now with the design team for consideration in further developing the concepts for the project. The extension of the Northern Busway is a key aspect for not only this project, but the community also. We’ve had overwhelming support for the busway and we’ll be progressing this along with the motorway upgrade through
to consenting. We’ve also had the community ask for more parking at the bus stations and we’ve passed on this feedback to Auckland Transport. Impacts on public open space and potentially-affected landowners, business owners and tenants are at the top of our minds as we progress the concepts into one or more options. The option(s) will then be assessed against a number of factors such as cost, environmental and /or social impacts, constructability and safety. Community and stakeholder feedback will also be taken into consideration as part of the option assessment process. This work is underway at the moment and we will have a preferred option (or options) developed within the next few months. Once we have a preferred option(s) we will contact those who may be affected to discuss the impacts the project may have and the next steps forward. In the meantime, if you want to talk to the team about property issues, or any concerns you may have, please contact us to set up a meeting. Later in the year we will be presenting to the wider community the preferred option(s) and explaining how we arrived at them. Once we’ve refined the preferred option(s) in
more detail towards the end of the year, the community – and wider public – will be able to provide us feedback once again, before we lodge consents. Thanks, and until next time, Sarah Sarah Cronwright is a Principal Transport Planner at the NZ Transport Agency and Project Manager for the Northern Corridor Project.