Maintenance work on state highways in Northland and Auckland will
stop for a Christmas break this week as part of a NZ Transport Agency
initiative to help ease congestion and keep traffic flowing for holiday
travellers.
The holiday shutdown will start in Northland
tomorrow (December 18) and in Auckland on Friday (December 20). Work
resumes in both regions from Monday, January 6.
The Transport
Agency’s highways manager, Tommy Parker, says maintenance is essential
to keep state highways in a safe and good condition, but it may involve
lane closures and diversions.
“Unless
there’s an emergency, we’ll be holding back on our work for a couple of
weeks to give people on holiday this Christmas priority,” says Parker.
“Highways in both regions will be busy and everything will be done to
help make sure people have a smooth and safe journey.”
With
schools starting to close for summer, holiday traffic is already
starting to build on highways between Auckland and Waikato/Bay of Plenty
and Auckland and Northland.
One of the busiest highways will
be the Northern gateway toll road on SH1 north of Auckland. Last
Christmas holiday there was an average of 19,900 trips a day – the
busiest day was January 2 when there were 23,500 trips. The yearly
average for the toll road is 15,000 trips per day.
“The
tremendous increase in holiday traffic on the toll road indicates just
how busy highways will be in Auckland and Northland, and the need for
drivers to plan their trips and to allow plenty of time for a safe
journey,” Parker adds.
“The risk of a crash increases at this time of year because there is more traffic and more congestion.”
Parker
says the Transport Agency is supporting the Police/ACC summer campaign
against excess speed to help keep people safe. Drivers will be
penalised if caught exceeding legal speed limits by more than 4 kph.
