The NZ Transport Agency and Auckland Transport are working together to investigate potential future improvements for the Hill Street intersection in Warkworth.
The work will look at design options and investigate what the future form of the intersection will be after other significant roading projects in the area are completed over the coming years including the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway.
Auckland Transport’s Delivery Manager, North and West, David Nelson, says any significant changes to the intersection would be done after alternative routes to State Highway 1 are completed.
“The work will examine designs that have been developed by Auckland Transport as well as those submitted by the community and will take into account the changes in traffic flows that will result from the completion of Matakana Link Road and the Puhoi to Warkworth Road of National Significance in 2021.”
The Transport Agency’s Regional Director for Auckland and Northland, Ernst Zollner says it understands the need to improve links in Warkworth ahead of expected future growth over the next 30 years.
“Within five years this region will have a world class motorway to improve transport choices in the region and which is expected to remove many of the current traffic frustrations. The completion of the $700m Puhoi to Warkworth project will provide an alternative route bypassing Warkworth, easing a significant proportion of the existing pressures on the Hill Street intersection. These investigations are a step towards ensuring that if any further improvements are required at Hill Street after 2021, we are in the best position to be able to get them under way.”
Work on Auckland Transport’s link road between Matakana Road and State Highway 1 is also underway. Following public consultation in late April, a preferred option for the road will be confirmed in August this year. The new road will also align with Auckland Transport’s Warkworth Western Collector route, a three stage plan to improve connections to the west of the state highway. Stage One of the Western Collector, connecting Mansel Drive to Falls Road, was opened in March this year. The exact route of the remaining two stages have yet to be determined but will connect to the State Highway; in the vicinity of McKinney Road in the south and in the vicinity of the Hudson Road intersection in the north.
