Updates continued and a dash of opinion

Ok so the second update I received was regarding the two motorway extensions happening in the area as part of the Western Ring Route. The SH18 Hobsonville Deviation and the SH16 Brigham Creek Deviation will be opening early! (assuming all continues as planned).

Below is a photo from the pamphlet which shows an aerial view Hobsonville Road interchange and the SH18-SH16 flyover. The photo looks west towards Westgate shopping centre, Massey and Royal Heights.

The photo demonstrates the massive area that is involved in the construction of the motorway. 2 years ago this area looked completely different its hard to even picture it.

Of course it is an achievement to finish a project of this magnitude early and I'm sure a significant number of people had to work very hard to manage it, but I find it seriously hard to comprehend why new roads are continually being built around Auckland.

For me it seems blindingly obvious. Petrol prices continue to rise and while we may get the odd joyful moment of a reduction in prices, in reality they will continue to climb. So then why are more roads built? Shouldn't we be encouraging people to find alternate ways to travel?

These are all things I plan on focusing on in my next few posts but for now I will leave you with some thought provoking quotes.

"The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved the living tissue of the city.  Its appetite for space is absolutely insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and ugly traffic." 

~James Marston Fitch, New York Times, 1 May 1960"

It wasn't the Exxon Valdez captain's driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill.  It was yours." 

~Greenpeace advertisement, New York Times, 25 February 1990

"A commuter tie-up consists of you - and people who for some reason won't use public transit." 

~Robert Brault

Updates!

So apparantly it has been all go in west Auckland of late. We very kindly recieved two updates in the mail in regards to two posts I made.

The first was in regards to the Hobsonville Point development and their plans to build a new primary and secondary school at the Point. Not all that exciting really, new schools get built all the time right?

except . . .

these will be the first schools in New Zealand built under PPP or a public-private partnership (depending on, ofcourse, the putting foreward of satisfactory bids). As outlined on the press release kindly delivered to my letterbox, a school PPP would basically mean that the private sector would esentially be responsible over a 25yr period, for the school including the design, building, maintenance and finance. The education side of things would stay in the realm of the board of trustees.

New Zealand seems to have a bit of a history of being quite wary of PPPs (especially of the infrastructure variety), although they are used fairly regularly overseas.

There are naturally some pros and cons to PPPs
pros
- project risk (such as design and construction risks) are are shifted to the private sector
- potential for better value for money
- the public sector can focus fully on students and their learning
- potential for better service provision

cons
- public perception regarding the loss of a 'public asset' for a long period of time
- need to be fitted into a some form of long-term plan (this is really only a con if it isnt properly intergrated into such plans)
- conflict of interests
- negative effects on the purpose of educational institutions

As I mentioned above, New Zealanders certainly tend to be hesitant about PPPs. Personally I think that it is a good approach to take. Any business deal should be approached with caution and the Government needs to make sure that the limits of control of the private sector a clearly set to ensure no cross-over into the education side of things.

Below is a fitting cartoon I found online, just as a little something extra to think about!
I will leave it there for the moment and put the other update in a new post since this one went a bit longer than what I was expecting.

Hobsonville Point: the 'good child' of west Auckland?

As mentioned previously a major development currently occuring in West Auckland is Hobsonville Point.

Hobsonville Point is a development on the Hobsonville Peninsula on the land that used to be owned/used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. I went for a drive to take a look the other day and the area has certainly come along way. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done but what has been done so far is actually (in my opinion) looking really nice.
Below are some photos that I took and turned in a collage!

What is really interesting though is reading about Hobsonville Point on its website http://www.hobsonvillepoint.co.nz/.
The website basically reads like a checklist for all the current 'it' children of planning; the 4 wellbeings (environmental, economic, social and cultural), sustainability, broadband fibre, mixed-use and mixed-density development, protecting heritage and the list goes on.

How this community continues to develop and evolve over the next few years and further into the future will definiately be something worth keeping an eye on.

Awesome animations?

So this is an animation by the NZ Transport Agency showing the developments of the Western Ring Route. It doesn't include the Westgate/Hobsonville extensions but is interesting all the same.

I actually found it on another blog which, by the way, is really interesting and full of great information. Check it out if you get the chance . . .
http://transportblog.co.nz/

And here is the animation!

Developments, developments, developments

Currently 'out west' there are two big developments occuring.
The first is the SH18 Hobsonville Deviation and SH16 Brigham Creek Extension.
The second is the development of Hobsonville Point.

For this post I am going to focus on the former and then look at Hobsonville Point in my next post . . . so here we go!

These two motorway extensions have been transforming the Hobsonville, Westgate and Whenuapai areas since September 2008, and it is getting pretty close to being done. You can now go stand on Trig Road and look down a motorway that does actually look like it will be completed on time (the completion date is September 2011). Below is a picture I took of the motorway about a month ago looking towards Greenhithe.

As outlined on the New Zealand Transport Agency website(http://www.nzta.govt.nz/network/projects/project.html?ID=40) this project is the last of three in the area aimed at providing better linkages between west and north Auckland.

One part of the developement which (I think) looks quite cool is the pedestrian and cyclist bridge on Clarks Lane. Ceramic tiles (made by local artists from local clay) have been paved along the bridge with each tile featuring an image of topographical maps and cycling lanes from the Hobsonville area.
(Photo taken by me!)

Another aspect of the bridge is the 'Sinton Windows' artwork. This piece of artwork includes some of the windows from the original Sinton house which was unable to relocated when motorway construction began. The photo below is one I took of the artwork

.

Ofcourse there are many pros and cons to the development and extension of the Auckland motorway system and this is something I plan on focusing on in future posts but I think for now we will leave it at a simple description of what is happening!

Future of Auckland??? (Aerial photo of Melbourne sprawl)



Photo credit: Robert Kerton (http://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/index.cfm?event=site.image.detail&id=1543)



The MUL: helpful tool or annoying constraint???

So, in a continuation from my last post . . .  the MUL: helpful tool or annoying constraint???

Urban limits are usually put in place to stop processes such a urban sprawl and promote more intensified development within the limits.

The flip side being that the New Zealand quarter acre dream is becoming harder and harder to fulfill especially if, as is the case in Auckland, new homes are not built. This has been part of the cause for the current issues over house prices that are being debated in the news.

The main issue in relation to Auckland is, if the MUL is relaxed, what will the effect be on Auckland? Will it be aimless development? Or help fix the house pricing issues that Auckland is dealing with?

The way the development occurs will have a huge impact on the future of Auckland especially in relation to transportation.

Decisions made today have huge implications for future generations therefore any decisions made today need to be made for the future and be proactive not reactive (something that is often easier said than done . . . )

What will certainly be interesting over the next coming months/year will be seeing what decsions are made in respect to this issue as they will probably set the tone for future decisions.