Traffic lights: Anzac Avenue/Frederick Street intersection

Four questions put to DCC Transportation Planning today:

● What work is needed to activate the traffic lights at Anzac/Frederick?
● Why it is requiring remediation?
● How much it will cost?
● Why weren’t the lights just switched on as planned in early December immediately after the site [Hall Brothers yard – Anzide Properties Ltd] was cleared?

The argument goes like this: there was a break made in a fibre optic cable during site clearance at Hall Bros yard. Chorus billed the property owner for the breakage. The property owner didn’t know the cable existed or that it had been attached to one of their buildings on site.

Meanwhile, DCC says the cable issue isn’t connected to the traffic lights not working.

So back to those questions:

DCC says new medians and yellow-dot pads are being added at crossings, and ‘green boxes’ for cyclists are being re-scoped — for improved traffic management, and cycle and pedestrian safety; the 5-way intersection is being turned to a *4-way* intersection (with the access way formerly used by Hall Bros being removed) — simplifying the intersection and lights control of it.

DCC says all work to cost circa $100,000.

Timelines as such around the holiday break meant the traffic lights weren’t turned on earlier [in December, immediately following site clearance by Hall Bros].

DCC says Tony Avery will likely handle media statements on completion of the project.
(why is Mr Avery still at DCC, he’s retained until the new GM arrives in February)

The real story?

Hall Bros had to clear their site by a certain date in December 2014. They did.
Chorus turned up the next day saying the property owner had broken the cable.
Chorus had no easement. The cable should not have been there.

The irony of the lights not working because they were connected illegally to a building on the land that had to be cleared because the lights were illegally installed, is THE ANSWER.

Remember, DCC says the cable issue isn’t connected to the traffic lights not working.

Ye Gods of Irony, please do not explode.

DCC Webmap – Anzac Avenue/Frederick Street [click to enlarge]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr —with thanks to correspondents for their wording, collaged

*Image: Tony Avery – tweaked by whatifdunedin

DCC promotes Riccarton Rd as sole heavy traffic bypass

█ City council and spooks menace Riccarton Rd property owners
█ Conflicted Mosgiel-Taieri community board pushes agendas
█ What’s really going on ????

Former Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board member Brian Miller, a resident of Riccarton Rd, is one of four landowners along the stretch who have declined to sell part of their land to the council for the project.

### ODT Online Wed, 23 Apr 2014
Get road fixed – board
By Debbie Porteous
The Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board has again urged the Dunedin City Council to get on with improving Riccarton Rd, saying it is even more of a priority now the council has agreed to allow 50-tonne trucks on local roads. The board made the plea in its submission to the Dunedin City Council on its 2014-15 draft annual plan. […] The council plans to widen and strengthen Riccarton Rd to improve its safety, and is working through land purchases to that end.
Read more

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50MAX vehicle carrier with HPMV H-sticker (NZTA)

NZTA | 50MAX
Updated: 15 April 2014
50MAX is a new generation of truck that allows for safe and more efficient transport of freight goods.
50MAX vehicle combinations have one more axle than conventional 44 tonne vehicles combinations, meaning the overall truck load is spread further and there is no additional wear on roads per tonne of freight.
50MAX gives operators an option to carry increased payloads on parts of the network that, while economically important to New Zealand, carry lower volumes of freight. The increased payloads of 50MAX can lead to economic benefits for producers, customers and our communities.

The New Zealand Transport Agency is now accepting 50MAX permit applications for State Highways in the North Island and South Island, as well as a steadily increasing number of roads delegated by local authorities.
50MAX permits for other local roads will be rolled out as they become available (in the meantime, 50MAX operators can apply for higher mass HPMV route permits from local authorities).
Read more + 50MAX vehicle designs

On the road
● Trucks will be permitted to carry loads of up to 53 tonnes on specified routes.
● Some types of trucks, including logging rigs and vehicle carriers, will be allowed to extend to 22m “as of right” instead of by permits.
● Some buses will be allowed to be 13.5m long – up from 12.6m now.
● Farm machinery will be allowed on roads at all hours, as long as it occupies no more than one lane.

50MAX 23m logging combination [NZTA] (click to enlarge)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Portobello Road Consultation —Public Meeting | Monday 13 May

Here is the latest web update for the Portobello Community.

This week we look at the road widening project and the proposed changes that the City Council has made to the initial plan. The City Council will be giving the community another opportunity to have your say on the proposal and the changes they have made to the plan since the consultation period in March 2013. This is an important issue for our township and community and the meeting is to be held at 7:00 pm on Monday, 13 May 2013 at the Coronation Hall. Pass this message onto your friends, neighbours, colleagues and whanau.

Regards
Paul Pope – Chairman, Portobello Incorporated

● The meeting will be attended by council staff, Cr Jinty MacTavish, and Otago Peninsula Community Board members.

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Related Post and Comments:
28.3.13 | Updated 29.3.13
DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14: Portobello Harington Point Road Improvements Project

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC Draft Annual Plan 2013/14: Portobello Harington Point Road Improvements Project

Updated Post 29.3.13

Received yesterday by email.

Something that seems to have slipped the radar in Dunedin news of late is the WIDENING of Portobello Harington Point Road on the Otago Peninsula.

Looking at the Draft Annual Plan, the City Council intends to spend the following on what amounts to an environmental and heritage damaging folly. That’s only 33-34 % of the budget, given NZTA will subsidise the remaining 66-67% of the project.

[click on image to enlarge]

See page 24, Section 1 Group of Activities (PDF, 1.5 MB)
and page 142, Section 2 Financial Statements (PDF, 1.2 MB)

The road widening (including the Vauxhall and Macandrew Bay areas already completed) will reclaim nearly 11 hectares of the Otago Harbour — a conservative measurement given plans show significantly more reclamation if the topography requires it.

Consultation on the current design closed yesterday, Thursday 28 March, indicating approval of the plan is a given despite the consultation process for the Annual Plan this year and in years to come.

[29.3.13 – The plans are not available for viewing online, why not?]

There will be irrevocable damage to the Peninsula and Harbour landscape, heritage features and the ecology if this misguided piece of engineering continues.

It is feared the Council has the bit between its teeth on this project — described as being about “liveability”, according to Mayor Cull at the Portobello Annual Plan ‘roadshow’.

It might be worth pointing out to your readers that they look closely at the Draft Annual Plan in regards to this area of Council expenditure.

Searching Council for cost benefit and recreational analyses fails to show much other than what is in the June 2008 Cycle Strategy (PDF, 787 KB).

[See also: Dunedin’s Proposed Cycle Network, adopted August 2011]

Few will have problems with the desirability of access, but the lack of design sensitivity and impact on the values of the area seem inconsistent with the value of the Peninsula and Harbour to the community and our economy.

This is certainly an issue worth looking at more deeply.

[ends]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

New SimCity or DCC strategy and development team

Comment received.

Anonymous
Submitted on 2013/03/09 at 12:00 pm

I think he should give them a computerized virtual environment where they can be kept busy designing and implementing their perfect virtual world without causing any actual cost or damage to our city. – JimmyJones

Timing! For around a hundred Dunedin City Ratepayer Dollars those council ‘urban designers’ could implement JimmyJones’ suggestion with the latest version of SimCity:

### Stuff Online Last updated 05:00 09/03/2013
World’s greatest urban planner
SimCity: The Best Urban-Planning Simulation Ever
By Farhad Manjoo
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/8401339/Worlds-greatest-urban-planner

[ends]

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Like in real life, your city’s resources are now finite. –Farhad Manjoo

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr