The NZ Transport Agency would like to thank all Aucklanders for their patience, and in particular their support, over the weekend's successful Southbound Switch.
For the provision of a viable alternative travel option and assistance in preparing detour routes, the NZTA would also like to acknowledge the positive contributions of its transport partners, ARTA and Auckland City Council.
Traffic counts taken around Auckland over the course of the Southern Motorway closure indicated that regular traffic volumes were down by as much as 80%. A six-fold increase in train patronage was recorded over the same period.
Importantly this positive response from Aucklanders to the much publicised advice to drive only if essential, left the roads clear for public transport and emergency services.
"To mitigate the potential impacts of closing the county's busiest stretch of motorway to daytime traffic, we had implemented one of the biggest traffic management exercises Auckland has ever seen," explains Neil Cree, NZTA's Acting State Highways Manager for Auckland and Northland.
"Beyond an extensive awareness campaign, we had created and enhanced priority detour routes, and even had contingency plans in place for a contra-flow along the northern lanes of State Highway 1 should traffic volumes on local roads become unmanageable. Thankfully these were not needed as Aucklanders took it upon themselves to make our extremely complex job as easy as possible."
While all these traffic management measures may not ultimately have been required this time, Mr Cree says that the detailed planning, and spirit of partnership, should imbue Aucklanders with confidence that the city will be able to respond to the transportation challenges associated with next year's Rugby World Cup.
The availability of a free transport alternative certainly played a key role in managing travel demand across the region this weekend.
"ARTA was pleased to work with NZTA to assist in the completion of this significant piece of transport infrastructure for Auckland," says Sharon Hunter, ARTA's Communications Manager.
"Aucklanders readily took up the free train offer with approximately 30,000 trips made on the Sunday as against the usual 5,000 trips. With an average of 1.2 people per vehicle this meant around 25,000 less car trips were made on Auckland's roads in one day, making a significant contribution to preventing congestion around the area of work".
The Southern Motorway reopened across the new southbound Newmarket Viaduct at midday yesterday, following a hitch-free move of the 800-tonne ‘Big Blue' construction gantry. Time-lapse footage of the gantry shift is available at the Southbound Switch Facebook page: www.facebook.com/switchmyroute(external link).
