Brew of witches' hats along bypass creates nightmare for commuters

The opening of the vaunted Bell Block bypass last week has been a revelation for peak-hour users including me, a 30-year veteran of that stretch of asphalt.

Instead of purring along on the state-of-the-art-highway, city-bound workers have spent the first week on this $21 million doozie crawling to work.

It has taken twice as long, sometimes longer, as it did when the previous road was in use before the cakes and bikkies ceremony last Friday.

That bun fight should have heralded the end of a three-and-a-half year project, but as daily users can see, it's anything but.

There is still a pile of work to be done and the current tinkering at the Egmont Rd intersection is the root cause of the snarl ups.

The concoction of witches' hats there has stacked cars beyond the Bell Block overpass each working day so far. I use witches' hats instead of road cones because the whole project has been a nightmare for regular users.

Spates of snail-like progress have occurred throughout construction and you could almost hear a collective sigh of relief when the ribbon was finally cut last Friday morning.

But as drivers tried to wend their way home at beer o'clock, it was bumper to bumper for kilometres north and south of the roadworks.

Sadly, it was a sign of things to come when the new working week dawned. Wednesday was worst for me. I came to a standstill directly beneath the overpass at exactly 8am. Forty minutes later I made the Downtown carpark in Powderham St. Once upon a time, a man could drive to Rahotu in the same time.

The bypass was opened too soon. Every inch of it should have been completed, every white (or yellow) line sprayed in place.

That won't happen, we're told, until road shoulder construction finishes in June.

I can't wait.

Then everybody will be able to rush to the log jam at the Waiwakaiho Bridge. Welcome to the 21st century.

- © Fairfax NZ News