Kapiti Expressway opened today 24/02/17- it is awesome!

[MD]

Before the Moderators move this to Rant or Rave this is a 'product review' from a Riders perspective and belongs in this category.

At 4am the sneaky buggers opened the $630m Expressway. I was sound asleep so missed the opportunity to be the first bike on it. I did a bike run this morning all the way north and then back to the southern QEII Park exit. Surprised there were no HP and it did enter my warped mind to be the first to do Her Majesty's imperial ton. Then I though I don't want to be the first person to lose their licence on the Expressway.

What I like is it's not one dead straight boring highway that it could have been made into. It snakes constantly through beautiful wetlands, farms, across the scenic Waikanae river and so on, you get the picture. As roads go it is an attractive bit of work. Quick hop now to the Waikanae golf course too.

The anti-wire rope barrier brigade will have a field day when they see it. Both shoulders and the medium barrier are miles of wire and I don't have a problem with that.

The cycle ways also look beaut and I will be out this weekend pounding the pedals to explore. Man am I pleased I moved north to Paraparaumu 2 years ago. Better climate and now even better cycle ways and the long awaited Expressway has come to fruition.

Well done Higgins and Goodmans and the rest of the construction crews.

[rustys]

Well done, woke up to see the traffic flowing along it this morning, ye'ha for Waikanae, and getting rid of the traffic congestion to Paraparaumu. Now can't wait for the next stage Transmission Gully.

[roogazza]

The cycle ways also look beaut and I will be out this weekend pounding the pedals to explore. Man am I pleased I moved north to Paraparaumu 2 years ago. Better climate and now even better cycle ways and the long awaited Expressway has come to fruition.

Way, way better climate huh MD, we moved another 30 or 40mins further north and the climate is better again mate. Hardly ever go to Wgton as its a waterbottle trip (aussie slang). Palmy has everything and a better place.
We'll see in time if the Police Dept can manage to block the fuckin bypass at the first sign of someone running up someones arse ??

[pete376403]

At $35 million / kilometer it SHOULD be fucking awesome. But all it does is move the bottleneck 18 km north. Otaki roundabout is still the chokepoint.

Good comment in Dompost this morning about the Govts obsession with "roads of national significance" justifying expenditure like this, regardless of the projected ROI. Why not Railways of national significance?

[MD]

I hear you Pete. Half the stuff in trucks could go by rail. Let us car/bikes enjoy or roads. How many bloody trucks are on our roads now compared to 20, 40 years ago.

Anyways I cycled the cycleway alongside the expressway this morning. 27 km round trip to Te Horo café and home. It is going to be a popular cycle track. Had a quick dip in the Waikanae river.

The cops were out in force today with what look liked zero tolerance. Heaps of Harleys riding up and down the Expressway. perfect for them I suppose, taps their bikes out at terminal velocity 104kpm, lots of people to pose in front of and no riding skill required.

Few pics. Too hard to spot but in three of these someone is getting a ticket.
pic 1. orange HP car bottom left.
Pic 2 a cop bike on far left shoulder just by the green sign.
pic 5 too hard to see but a white cop car is on far right hand side shoulder recovering cost of construction. Yesterday the Expressway cost $630m. Today thanks to the fun Police in the short time I was cycling net cost has been reduced to $629,999,400

[release_the_bees]

Looks like kilometres of cheese cutters. Good to see they've taken motorcycle safety into consideration!

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[Zedder]

Why not Railways of national significance?

That's a fair question. As I understand it, the difference is in the funding.

Rail projects are financed from the Consolidated Fund only and so "lose money" while roading has the benefit of revenue from RUC, fuel levies, local authority rates etc.

[MD]

Looks like kilometres of cheese cutters. Good to see they've taken motorcycle safety into consideration!

We are primarily a dairy producer after all.

[swbarnett]

roading has the benefit of revenue from RUC, fuel levies, local authority rates etc.

And straighter roads mean more ticket revenue.

[bogan]

Bit of a fucking mish mash of hot mix and 'standard' chip seal though. Given the amount they spend on artsy fences, retaining walls, bridges and their cladding, and the cycleway; I would have though going all hot mix would be a no brainer for future proofing...

It's still pretty good though, going to be mint when the other two SH1 upgrade stages are done.

[Moi]

Looking at the first photo, an observation: the width of the emergency shoulder seems a little narrow - the highway patrol car is parked at the end of an on-ramp, the policeman is standing beside the other car and he appears to be standing on the fog-line. Might be okay there but if that was you trying to change a flat tyre further along would you be happy with your behind quite that close to passing traffic?

[BMWST?]

coming back from Ohakea yesterday evenimg the traffic came to a stop at the top of the forest parks hill It was 1st gear from there to Otaki roundabout,immediately after the roundabout the traffic started to flow.There was a queue from Rahui Rd were there races there yesterday?.That intersection is a disgrace. SH1 is stopped by a local or two,then on the exit you often have queue s because of trafic lights.The ex[ressway is fine but the surfacing looks patchy ,on the main route the shoulders are very wide in some places

[Tazz]

Bit of a fucking mish mash of hot mix and 'standard' chip seal though. Given the amount they spend on artsy fences, retaining walls, bridges and their cladding, and the cycleway; I would have though going all hot mix would be a no brainer for future proofing...

It's still pretty good though, going to be mint when the other two SH1 upgrade stages are done.

Did the same shit for the southern motorway in Chch. Were resealing most of it again within a year

[bogan]

Did the same shit for the southern motorway in Chch. Were resealing most of it again within a year

Good business model for some though!

[Ulsterkiwi]

There was a queue from Rahui Rd were there races there yesterday?.

turn off SH1 at Manakau and you can take the back roads into Otaki past the race course. If you have no love of stop start its a lovely wee road, nice for a bit of a blat on the bike as well.