Great North Road improvements

There will be up to 12 nights of nightworks coming up starting 24 November. We won’t be working in all places at once — we'll stagger work along the road. We will work hard to complete the noisiest work before 10:30pm, and limit unnecessary noise. The traffic management set-up will be consistent with earlier nightworks.

The project letter has the work dates and timing, and a staging map. All work is weather dependent and may be pushed back for bad weather. This may delay start dates of later stages.

Our aim is to complete construction and road resurfacing before 18 December, weather permitting. In the new year there will be some final surface markings, like the bus lane greening. These can only be applied after the asphalt has had time to settle.

If you have any questions or concerns, contact AT or the project stakeholder manager. You can:

• email sally.logan@jfcltd.co.nz
• phone 021 420 794.

We thank you for your continued patience and support throughout this project.

Great North Road is a major Auckland corridor, carrying large numbers of people in and out of the City Centre. The area is changing, with more residential apartments being built. Around the project’s section of Great North Road, the population is expected to grow approximately 24% by 2031.

Auckland Transport’s strategic network plan, Future Connect, identifies this section of Great North Road as having strategic importance for people walking, cycling, driving and using public transport.

This project also helps deliver on The Auckland Plan. The Plan calls for improving the “safety, personal security and attractiveness of walking and cycling alternatives” and “investing in and integrating public transport and walking and cycling networks to provide convenient and efficient alternatives.”

Improved access to reliable public transport and safe walking and cycling are key, as many new developments have limited access to private vehicles. By making public transport, walking and cycling safer and more attractive, we can create better-connected communities and give people more options for how they move around the city.

Over the past 5 years (2019 to 2023), there have been 84 collisions. As part of the project, we will address road-user safety with road resurfacing, maintenance and intersection upgrades.

Project timeline so far:

• 2016: consultation on a cycleway and improvements to Great North Road
• 2017 to 2021: design development and community engagement (project delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions)
• 2021: consultation on an updated design
• 2022: community re-engagement in advance of construction
• 2023 to 2024: preparatory works (stage 1).

The improvements include a protected cycleway, new and better-designed bus stops, pedestrian crossings and new loading zones. These changes will make accessing Great North Road safer and easier, whether by foot, bike, bus or car.

Bus lanes will be extended to cover the entire route, in operation from 7am to 10am and 4pm to 7pm, Monday to Friday.

Eight new bus stops will be built, with safe access across the cycleway to a waiting area. Some existing bus stops will be moved, to be closer to pedestrian crossings and improve bus efficiency where stops are currently a short distance from each other.

Raised tables and kerb build-outs on side streets and 2 new signalised pedestrian crossings will improve safety for people moving around Great North Road, including children at local schools.

To create space for bus lanes and the cycleway, we’ve removed the flush median along the route, but drivers will still be able to turn right to access side streets and businesses.

Great North Road will also be a greener street, with around 217 new native trees and 5000 plants.

We know parking is important for visitors, customers and people working and running businesses. For safety and to provide space for new loading zones, pedestrian crossings, bus stops and cycle lanes, there will be less space on Great North Road for parking. This means available parking spaces – including on side streets – will need to work harder to ensure that access for visitors and businesses is maximised.

In the design consultation in 2022, we indicated that about 115 parking spaces are likely to be impacted. We are reviewing the final arrangements with the aim of removing less parks if we can. Sightlines (where parked cars can obscure visibility for people turning in and out of side streets) are an important consideration. This is because there are a high number of collisions along this road. Also, people using the new cycle lanes need to be visible to traffic at potential conflict points.

To make available parking spaces work better, we are considering a mix of parking which balances the needs of customers, businesses and visitors. This includes new loading zones, free parking with time limits and paid parking so people can choose how long they park for. This will not affect existing residential parking zones.

We have also increased parking on some side streets by changing parallel parking to angle parking (where able). This has added 10 more parking spaces in the area. 

More than 200 native trees and 5,000 plants will be planted. This will replace 23 trees being removed to accommodate the new street design. Species to be planted include tītoki, rewarewa, cabbage tree, kānuka, pōhutukawa, horoeka, nikau and kōwhai.

Each new tree will include low-level planting around its base. Bus stops and kerb build outs will also be landscaped with species including rengarenga, maurea, toitoi, coprosma, koromiko and flax.

This project was designed to improve safety along this stretch of road. Between 2014 and 2019, there were 11 serious injuries along the route. There have been 139 recorded crashes in this timeframe, with more than 80% occurring at intersections.

Crashes involving vulnerable road users were clustered around intersections, with 13 crashes involving motorcyclists, 7 crashes involving pedestrians and 7 crashes involving people on bikes.

By installing a cycleway, crossings and raised tables across side streets, the project will make travel safer for everyone, especially vulnerable road users.

Consultation was open from March to May of 2021. We received 274 submissions through our online survey, feedback forms and email. We also received 192 data-drops on the social pinpoint platform.