Improving journeys to Auckland Airport
The airport journey is the gateway to Auckland and New Zealand, the last trip before departure or the sign that you’re nearly home. State highways 20A and 20B are the key corridors that connect the airport, and a key upgrade of State Highway 20A will soon be separating local and highway traffic on the Kirkbride approach, improving safety and travel times. This is just one of a number of initiatives underway and in planning to ensure people can continue to be confident in their airport journey.
Air passenger volumes and job numbers in the broader airport precinct are growing quickly and it’s vitally important that access to and from Auckland Airport is reliable and safe. It’s expected that peak time trips to the airport will increase from 9,000 to 15,000 over the next decade.
The roads in and around the airport don’t work in isolation, they are all part of one transport system in the greater Auckland network. That’s why we’re working collaboratively with our partners and taking a whole of system approach, to give people and businesses more certainty about their airport travel as the city continues to grow.
We’re putting our customers at the heart of our plans for better transport to and from Auckland Airport. By taking a whole-of-system approach, we are preparing for future population and business growth, ensuring we can move increasing numbers of travellers and improving the efficiency of freight around New Zealand’s largest city.
– Fergus Gammie, NZ Transport Agency CE
Things are already changing
“I work at the airport and have lived in Te Atatu for the last 12 years. The tunnel couldn’t have opened soon enough! It cuts 15 minutes off my travel time, saves petrol and most importantly restores my sanity after years of traffic diversions and road closures!”
– customer comment, NZTA Auckland and Northland Facebook page
The success of both Auckland and New Zealand is closely tied to the quality of our connections to the rest of the world. That’s why we’re bridging the connectivity gaps between Auckland city and its airport, building missing links and upgrading the existing corridors.
A new choice for accessing the airport has been created by the Waterview Tunnel, offering quicker, more reliable journeys between the airport and Auckland’s centre, west and north. Around 60,000 vehicles are using the Waterview Tunnel each day and it’s also helping to keep airport traffic off local roads.
Waterview Tunnel is helping to rebalance the city’s travel demands, resulting in a more efficient motorway system with around 8,500 fewer hours each day of total travel time on the motorways alone. Prior to the Waterview Connection, and the associated upgrade of State Highway 16, journeys from the Airport to the CBD in the afternoon peak would take an average of up to 44 minutes via Manukau Rd and Gillies Ave, now via the Waterview Tunnel they take 27 minutes and via the Manukau/Gillies route they have also dropped to 34 minutes.
In response to growth around Auckland Airport, a multi-agency Airport Taskforce was created in late 2016 to find immediate ways to improve journeys in and around the precinct. This collaboration of the NZ Transport Agency with Auckland Transport and Auckland Airport has already resulted in improvements, including changes to the layout of the State Highway 20B interchange and the opening of additional lanes on Kirkbride Road, to increase capacity and deliver more consistent travel times.
“The upgrade of the SH16 and the completed Waterview connection is an important step in building a resilient and mixed mode urban transport network which is critical to support the ongoing growth in jobs and economic activity for Auckland.”
– Adrian Littlewood, Auckland Airport CEO
SH20A to Airport
The $160 million SH20A to Airport upgrade is part of the Government’s Auckland Accelerated Programme to bring forward key Auckland transport projects. SH20A is the primary route to and from Auckland Airport and forms a strategic link between the Western Ring Route, the Airport Business District and the greater Auckland area. The improvements will deliver increased journey reliability and safety by separating motorway traffic from local traffic at the Kirkbride Road intersection, to improve traffic flows on both the highway and local roads.
The upgrade will also have a significant positive impact on the local community. The design of the Kirkbride Road bridge will allow cyclists and pedestrians to cross the highway safely, bringing this community back together.
We have worked with Auckland Transport to make the new infrastructure wide enough to accommodate any future mass transit solution, and Auckland Transport contributed to the costs of that work.
“The flat geography of Mangere makes it a great place to bike and creating shared paths like this one at Kirkbride will encourage more local kids and their families to bike or walk which means they have more money for other things.”
– Teau Aiturau ‘Mr Tee’ local bike champ
SH20A to Airport upgrade, including LED artwork by local iwi artist, Reuben Kirkwood
Looking ahead
Auckland’s rapid growth in travel demand is accelerating the need to provide reliable, congestion free travel options to and from the airport. Together with Auckland Transport, we’re investigating the most appropriate transport options and have started planning to protect a mass transit route from the city centre along Dominion Road and State Highways 20 and 20A to the airport. This would allow for a transition over time from regular bus services to a bus rapid transit system and to light rail.
"The fastest and most efficient way of providing a high quality rapid transit connection between the city centre and Airport is through improved bus infrastructure between the Airport and Puhinui train station (with connection to Southern line trains) and an upgrade of that station to a key bus/rail interchange."
– ATAP update to reflect faster growth, August 2017
As part of this work we are now developing a business case, together with Auckland Transport, to provide confidence on the best way to implement improvements, including the timing and nature of the transition as demand grows. In the recent update of the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) indicative package, which outlines the approach for Auckland’s transport infrastructure investment, policies and services, transport agencies have recommendedthat completion of mass transit from the city as far as Mt Roskill should be completed within the next decade.
ATAP included a major upgrade of State Highway 20B in its indicative package – and allocated bus improvements from the airport to Manukau as a second decade priority. The ATAP update identified that work on 20B should begin as soon as possible, and investment in Airport-Manukau bus priority, including Puhinui interchange, should be brought forward into the first decade. This would respond to fast growth in the area and take advantage of construction efficiency opportunities.
The East West Connection is also enabling a mass transit connection to the airport. Stage 1 of the project involved removing the Neilson Street rail bridge and creating a new, lowered road. Eventually any mass transit system will be elevated and go over this road.
We’re also looking at other ways to give customers better information about their travel choices through smarter use of new technology. Alongside our Mobility as a Service pilot in Queenstown, we are collaborating with our Auckland partners on what a Mobility as a Service pilot in and around Auckland Airport could look like. The Auckland pilot will likely align to the airport's busy period over summer.
DriveLive – Auckland
For all the latest travel times to the Airport, view our DriveLive website(external link).
