The Manukau Road area of Pukekohe has been undergoing considerable change in recent years, with changing land uses and growing amounts of traffic. In 2007 Council began investigating how to ensure the Manukau Road area meets the needs of all people who use it, now and in the future. Progress on this project is outlined below.

Latest News

June 2009

Following the finalisation of the Long Term Council Community Plan 2009 -19, installation work to provide signals at the Manukau Road/Massey Avenue/East Street/Stadium Drive intersection has now been deferred for a period of 12 months. It is now expected that the work will be programmed to be carried out in January 2011, to coincide with reduced traffic flows during the school holiday period. Design work for the signals is nearing completion.

Service utility relocation work is almost complete. Similar work has been carried out at the intersection of Manukau Road with the Mega Centre entranceway, (Wrightson Way), and Nelson Street. Both these intersections are to be converted to roundabouts. Design work for these roundabouts is complete and the installation work is expected to commence in September  2009, with completion expected by December 2009. A raised solid median strip is to be constructed between the two roundabouts.

In February 2010, Council will invite interested parties to an open day, time and venue to be arranged, to view the latest proposed layout for the rest of Manukau Road including planned intersection improvements. The construction work is programmed to take place over the next 2-4 financial years.
 

What Council is Doing

December 2007:  Inquiry By Design Workshop held at Franklin: The Centre

Responding to the growing congestion and access issues in Manukau Road, Council held a two day design workshop to explore ways to ensure Manukau Road would continue to function well in the future.

Facilitated by Kobus Mentz, an urban planning and design specialist from Urbanismplus, and Jim Higgs, a transport planning specialist from TTM Consulting, the workshop was attended by over 60 participants, including Council representatives and other stakeholders from the community.

The workshop took into account the changing land uses and travel patterns in the area and worked towards crafting a design concept for the Manukau Road area that would:

• maintain efficient traffic flows
• provide for all modes of travel 
• improve links with the town centre and railway station 
• recognise Manukau Road as a gateway to Pukekohe 
• enhance the character and amenity of the area

Key elements of the design concept are:

Transport: Improve traffic flow and safety through expanding the road network with better connections, installing a combination of traffic lights and roundabouts, together with some raised medians, and making better provision for buses, access to the rail station, and pedestrians and cyclists.

Streetscape: Character and amenity, and gateway concept, to be enhanced through landscaping and design treatments.

Land use: Encourage mixed use (retail, office, residential) development in the business area north of Subway and Glasgow Roads, in a more pedestrian oriented environment.

The implementation of the design concept would be through a staged process, as provided for in the LTCCP. 

Early to Mid 2007:  Investigation of traffic growth on Manukau Road

This investigation revealed that over the next few years the capacity limits of Manukau Road would mean that levels of service for traffic flows and access would decline to unacceptable levels. Initial designs were developed for increasing the capacity of the road.