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Meeting about north Christchurch roading
The City Council is running a meeting for
people interested in discussing the study of north
Christchurch’s future road network. It is being held
on Wednesday, 12 March at 7pm. City Council staff, councillors and Transit New
Zealand officials will outline the recent traffic
consultant’s report on the Northern Roading
Options Scoping Study (NROSS) and listen to
people’s opinions about the ideas being considered. CCC Senior Transport Planner Stuart Woods
stresses that no decisions have yet been made
about the future of roading in north Christchurch. “The Council is still to debate its options and is
likely to make a decision in April about what to
do next,” he says. “The important thing at this
stage is to make the information about the study
available to interested groups and individuals.” The traffic consultant’s report, released in
November last year, examines the 1600
submissions made by the public about the draft
roading strategy (NROSS) released for
consultation by the City Council, Transit NZ,
Environment Canterbury and the Waimakariri and
Hurunui district councils. The report includes
further traffic modelling analysis to see what would
happen if the strategy was changed in various ways
to deal with concerns raised by the public. The report says there is a clear case for
extending the northern motorway south as an
expressway to and across QE II Drive to Cranford
Street. And it favours upgrading the capacity of
Cranford Street, Hills Road, Northcote Road and
part of QE II Drive, and creating a new link to
extend Hills Road to QE II Drive. It recommends
the western Belfast by-pass, which was discussed
earlier, not be considered further in the next 20
years, based on current city growth and
development. The traffic consultant’s report suggests more
discussion with the public and more detailed
analysis are needed about extending both Grants
Road (to Cranford Street) and Rutland Street (to
Grassmere Street). About Rutland Street, the
report says attention should be paid to potential
social and environmental effects. There were
more than 600 submissions last year against this
part of the NROSS strategy. The consultant’s report is not light reading. The
two volumes run to about 150 pages of writing
and many more diagrams. The recent work is
outlined in the second volume, about 40 pages,
excluding the many diagrams and the public
submission analysis. For those interested in
reading it or the executive summary, the report is
available from the CCC Civic Offices in Tuam
Street or on the Council website, at
www.ccc.govt.nz/NorthernRoadingStudy/Reports/ |