Two Flat Bush residents are angry and fed up waiting for much-needed safety improvements to a bridge which is regularly used by school students.
“We don’t care how they manage the funds – Emergency Budget or not – but it’s high time Auckland Council stops putting the lives of our families at risk, and upgrades the Flat Bush School Road say Flat Bush residents Norris Jajjo, a security consultant and Yuva Adhikary, a retired civil engineer of 43 years.
They are both furious and frustrated they bought expensive homes well over a million, in an area that promised basic amenities.
Adhikary who worked as a consultant with Manukau City Council moved to Flat Bush last October and is horrified by the state of Flat Bush School Road–the only connecting road to over 3000 houses that often floods up, making it a grave big traffic hazard.
“It poses grave danger for children crossing the road or walking to school. I feel so scared all the time, worrying if my family will get killed or injured,” he says pointing to the narrow road that has barriers recently installed to make way for pedestrians.
“There is no value for life! We’ve paid a big sum for our homes and I am certain that every developer pays the Council a certain amount of fees for basic amenities to be set-up,” says Adhikari who explains that having seen Flat Bush grow into a beautiful township for over 50,000 people, they bought a house in Flat Bush last October and are living there since then.
The duo say they are aware that a resolution has been passed to build a temporary bridge, “But why has it taken so long?” they want to know.
It was in n April last year that board chair David Collings had said that the road safety improvement project, and the bridge was a “no-brainer”.
“We have talked about a variety of projects to help Te Uho o Te Nikau and, although no decisions have been made, we have earmarked $1 million of our Transport Capital Fund as a reserve for future delivery of the project, and we will investigate using the Regional Safety Fund in June,” he had said.
Jajjo a Security Consultant reckons it is a painful process calling up Auckland Council and Auckland Transport who keep passing on the buck.
“They have kids at the call centre with no idea where the road is located or what the problem is. It’s very difficult to get any answers by contacting them at the Call Centre,” he points out.
Jajjo finally made a breakthrough by connecting with higher up contacts he had at Auckland Council to stress on the major health and safety risk. “Can you imagine the danger with kids walking on the side of the gravel road with 16- wheeler dirt trucks going back and forth at 80km an hour?” he questions.
Meanwhile Auckland Transport took heed and made it one-way street.
They temporarily installed traffic lights and a few light barriers (at the point where the road dips) to make way for pedestrians walking the narrow path.
“It was only a matter of time that someone was going to get seriously injured or killed on this stretch of road, so along with my neighbour Yuva we took it upon ourselves to contact the City Council to raise these concerns,” he says.
“I also discussed the issue with our neighbours, and they are worried too. After raising these issues with the Council in November and again in December, we felt that our concerns weren’t getting any traction so we raised a health and safety risk with Auckland Transport.
“A couple of weeks later, half the road was shut down to a single lane with traffic lights installed to direct traffic,” he says.
“We were excited as this usually meant work was forthcoming but as weeks turned into months and a few close calls with people not following the traffic rules, we decided to escalate this to Council again.
“After doing some research, we discovered that we weren’t the first to raise this roads problems and lack of attention from AT or Council. It appears that a year ago this was a major issue with other people raising the same issue and funds have been allocated to this project.
“We were flabbergasted by this delay –one can only describe it as bureaucracy running amuck.”
He says that after extensive research, they discovered there were no records of any plans for a permanent bridge.
“The original funds of $100,000 were for only a temporary solution,” he says.
“No one can explain why a temporary solution would take a year to be awarded to a contractor and we can only image that if a temporary bridge took 2-3 years in the pipeline….. Then a permanent one would take 10 years to complete and possibly $3-4m of ratepayers money,” he says sounding annoyed.
Not willing to give up, the duo wrote to Howick Local Board members and Councillors Sharon Stewart and Paul Young to speed up the process.
“Having raised all these concerns with local Councillors, we would expect the wheels to turn faster now before what appears to be a road built for third-world conditions. Over the next two to three years this road will be used by people living in 10,000 homes that are being built really fast. ”
The Times met up with the concerned residents along with Councillors Stewart, Young along with Matthew Brajkovich who could help the residents form a Ratepayers group in the Flatbush Ormiston community.
Sharon made some urgent calls to Auckland Transport traffic engineer Melanie Alexander to push for work to start immediately on a temporary walkway and the much-needed bridge extension from one side of the sub-division to the other.
“Flat Bush School Rd is a busy road with heavy trucks and excavators moving frequently. This road at 231(FBSR) is narrow depressed. One-way traffic lights have been in place which holds local traffic on both sides and it is very inconvenient to the pedestrians and risky for children. There is a risk both to the pedestrians and the drivers. It won’t be long and someone will be killed. This area is now significantly developed; the local people deserve a better road.
“I am also very concerned about the protection barrier that is being used for children to walk to school. This protection barrier only came about after Norris Jejjo and Yuva Adhikary continually rang AT to get something in place. The barrier must be the orange ones weighted with water and hard to move.”
Young said he had made enquiries if the upgrading of the road would be part of the emergency budget and will get to know soon.
