The ‘dog-leg’ option or straight as an arrow? Connect with Melling Link or with Queens Drive?
Locals are being asked for their views on what traffic improvements and a new bridge at Melling should look like.
After considering more than 40 interchange designs, the NZ Transport Agency/Greater Wellington/Hutt City Council Riverlink project team has short-listed three top options.
They’re described at this web page (https://haveyoursay.gw.govt.nz/riverlink) but it can be hard to get your head around the pluses and minuses of each one. If you’ve got questions, experts from the project team will be at the Dowse (Sat 12 May, 10am-7pm, Wed. 16 May, 4-7pm), for the next three Saturdays at the Riverbank Market, and at various times at Queensgate. They can give you more detailed information.
All three top options allow State Highway Two through traffic to flow freely under fly-overs, with no traffic lights or roundabouts to contend with.
Without wishing to steer public feedback in any particular direction, the option of the bridge and interchange that connects with Melling Link (i.e. the route of the current Melling bridge) has some disadvantages. It’s not as effective for flood protection purposes because the bridge will be at the narrowest part of the river. It would also spell quite a bit of traffic disruption during the construction phase as the new bridge is built around the existing access points.
The two other options to connect SH2 and Western Hills traffic with the city centre link into Queens Drive, and so the existing Melling Bridge could continue to be used while the new one is built.
One of the Queens Drive options has a dog-leg layout and three sets of traffic lights. A traffic engineer has said the lights allow ‘pulsing’ of traffic flows at different times, traffic splitting and better queuing capacity and an NZTA spokesman has confirmed this dog-leg has “marginal” traffic advantages.
The big advantage of the straight line design of raised interchange and bridge is that it is simple and elegant, and thus for motorists – especially visitors to this gateway to our city – it will likely be easier to ‘read’ and navigate.
Some might wonder why the bridge and interchange can’t be further south, delivering traffic in and out of the very centre of the CBD. That answer is that modelling showed the centre city streets could not handle that level of traffic and would soon clog up.
Besides, part of the Riverlink Project is the option of building a pedestrian and cyclist footbridge across the river, linking a new Melling train station and the heart of the CBD. Don’t forget the Melling station has to be shifted further south from its current position because the land is need for the new interchange and off/on ramps.
The NZTA’s board is expected to make a final decision on the business case for the new Melling bridge and interchange in November this year.
Crucial to this is the Coalition Government’s Policy Statement (GPS) on transport, which you’ll recall emphasises a greater focus (and therefore spending!) on traffic safety, public transport, cycling and walking, and less focus on large-scale motorway projects and National’s ‘roads of national significance’.
The Melling and Riverlink project, in many ways, fits this prescription. Cyclists and pedestrians are well catered for, and in regards to safety we are removing an intersection where highway speed traffic conflicts with vehicles moving in and out of 50km/hr streets (and where too many people run red lights).
As well, we’re told all three of the new bridge options are being built high enough to allow the Melling Line to be extended further north, perhaps to the bottom of Kelson hill, should that be considered viable in the future.
So there’s a lot at stake – don’t forget to have your say.
Leave a Reply