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Hughes wants better solution for T2 lanes

Darren Hughes

23.06.2008

Otaki MP Darren Hughes says his constituents have had enough of Porirua City Council’s procrastination and inability to see commonsense over Mana’s T2 lanes.

Mr Hughes says it's commuters in his electorate who are suffering the most while Porirua City Council delays giving Mana residents the facts of life. He is mounting a campaign for four lanes, full-time on State Highway One, along Mana Esplanade.

"The daily time delays and wasted fuel can't be justified any longer. The T2 lanes were bound to cause confusion but rather than remove them Porirua City Council wants another experiment, this time, trialling clear ways," said Mr Hughes.

"It's all designed to appease a very small number of residents."

"It's no different to people moving to the Kapiti Coast and complaining about sunshine and sea air. There's not a single resident of Mana Esplanade who didn't know it was the State Highway when they moved there. The demands of residents for it to revert to a suburban street at certain times each day are ridiculous," said Mr Hughes.

The MP says fixing specific times when all four lanes will be open, but more specifically, long periods when the road is down to two lanes, will continue to generate frustration in Kapiti.

"Take for instance events at Westpac stadium. Kapiti and Horowhenua residents driving in to the stadium have to allow an extra 20-30 minutes because of the bottle-neck that is caused through Mana. Fixed clear way times can't take account of one-off events and there will be many of those. It has gone on for years, my constituents have been incredibly patient but now it's their turn to be heard."

Mr Hughes acknowledges there are several safety issues associated with Mana Esplanade but says four lanes full-time will ease many of those.

"Get the traffic flowing, take away the frustrations and there's no reason why anyone has to exceed 50kph along there. More could be done to safeguard pedestrians crossing. Enforcement of red light running and speeding by police is needed. Safety is paramount," said Mr Hughes.

The MP says he will be talking to Porirua City Council and Transit in an endeavour to get them to understand the "stakeholder" role in decision making that Kapiti and Horowhenua residents have to date been denied.

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