The NZ Transport Agency and Wellington City Council are making changes to the Hawkestone Street intersection so it’s efficient and safe for all road users, commuters and pedestrians.
The NZ Transport Agency and Wellington City Council have made changes to the road layout at the Hawkestone Street intersection, to remove the option for commuters who use the Hawkestone Street intersection as a detour to skip ahead of queues when travelling south on the State Highway 1 (SH1) motorway.
The Hawkestone Street intersection with State Highway 1 was regularly used by some morning commuters as a detour to skip ahead of queues when travelling south on State Highway 1. This caused delays when they attempted to merge back in with the flow of SH1 traffic and posed a safety risk to road users on Hawkestone Street including other commuters and pedestrians.
To manage this, we made improvements to the layout of the Hawkestone Street intersection. The changes have cut morning SH1 commute times from 1–2 minutes by preventing urban motorway commuters from using the intersection as a shortcut and improved the flow of traffic along Hawkestone Street.
The map shows the permanent layout changes to Hawkestone Street, planned for completion by October 2019.
Download larger map [PDF, 4.2 MB]
Road layout changes
Parking changes
The new road layout has been in place since 25 March 2019.
We carefully monitored pedestrian and road user behaviour for two months in response to the new layout. This helped us determine the success and identify any unforeseen issues before making the improvements permanent.
Since the new layout, travel times have been 1–2 mins faster in peak 8am week day flow from Murphy Street to The Terrace Tunnel/off-ramp.
This is because there are less vehicles re-entering SH1 from the Hawkestone Street southbound on-ramp.
Safety for pedestrians and cyclists on Hawkestone Street has also improved by reducing the amount of traffic using the morning detour.
Before the new layout, there were up to 89 vehicles using the short cut during the 7–9am peak.
In the last four weeks of monitoring, this dropped to an average of five.
Based on these positive results, we will soon be removing the flexible bollards and installing the permanent road layout using concrete. The parking changes will also be made during the permanent construction phase.
Permanent construction is planned to start mid-October and will take about four weeks, weather permitting. The permanent layout is estimated to be in place by November 2019.
During construction, crews will be on site from 7pm–5am.
Traffic lanes will be altered to allow space for the works, there will be some shoulder closures with pedestrian traffic management, and a 30km/h temporary speed limit will remain in place.
The Transport Agency is making changes to the layout of the Hawkestone Street intersection. The changes will improve traffic flow along Hawkestone Street and prevent urban motorway commuters from using the intersection as a shortcut.
CloseThe Transport Agency has recognised some southbound commuters use the Hawkestone Street intersection as a shortcut to skip ahead of queues when travelling southbound on the SH1 motorway, particularly during morning commuter traffic.
This creates delays for other commuters who are travelling southbound on the SH1 motorway, creates congestion and poses a safety risk to road users on Hawkestone Street including other commuters and pedestrians.
CloseWe will introduce the new road layout on 25 March 2019.
During the introduction of this new layout, we will install flexible bollards or ‘safe hit posts’. These are a fluorescent colour and have reflective tape to make them visible to all road users, both day and night.
The parking changes will be made during the permanent construction phase.
CloseWe will carefully monitor pedestrian and road user behaviour in response to the new layout. This will help us determine the success of the new road layout and identify any unforeseen issues before making the improvements permanent.
Once we are certain that the road layout works, we will remove the flexible bollards and install a permanent road layout using concrete.
CloseThe Transport Agency has worked closely with the Wellington City Council to ensure that this improvement considers all users – commuters on SH1, commuters on Hawkestone Street, local residents, local schools, businesses and pedestrians. They also have worked with the Greater Wellington Regional Council to minimise impacts to bus access and use, as well as consulted with St Mary’s College to minimise impacts to their access.
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