Traffic at a crawl on SH88. Photo by Chris Morris
Harbour commuters heading into Dunedin on SH88 this
morning were stuck in traffic for up to an hour because of
roadworks.
Otago Daily Times reporter Chris Morris said it had taken him
50 minutes to drive from Burkes to Ravensbourne, a drive that
would usually take less than 10 minutes.
The disruption was caused by roadworks in the 70km zone
between Ravenbourne and Forsyth Barr Stadium.
The bottleneck has eased and traffic is now flowing.
NZTA Senior Network Manager John Jarvis apologised for the
delays road users encountered this morning, and said the
agency was taking steps to ensure they were not
repeated.
The soft ground conditions meant traffic was unable to drive
much over 5kmh, causing long traffic queues.
"When removing old asphalt, you can never be totally sure of
what ground conditions you will find and that is what has
occurred on this section of road at 6am this morning."
Motorists could expect delays of 7-8 minutes on the road this
afternoon due to the uneven surface.
Mr Jarvis said minor work was being carried out today on the
traffic lane to Port Chalmers between the Parry Street
roundabout and Ravensbourne so it could handle traffic at
speeds of 50kmh by 3pm this afternoon.
However, because of the amount of traffic around with a
cruise ship in Port Chalmers, delays of up to 10 minutes were
still possible.
"We suggest road users allow up to 20 minutes extra travel
time at peak times."
Overnight, the focus will be on getting the Port Chalmers to
Dunedin lane up to the same standard, so road users do not
experience lengthy delays tomorrow morning.
The resurfacing work is expected to be completed next
Wednesday.
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