Lights, chaos and a T2 lane for Brougham St
Friday, 16 May 2025
Four Empty Seats is a transport project from The Press looking at why Christchurch is such a car-centric city, dominated by single occupancy vehicles.
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has revealed a $150 million revamp to tackle safety and congestion issues on one of Christchurch’s busiest streets will include T2 lanes.
Despite Brougham St being a key freight link between Lyttelton Port and the Southern Motorway, trucks will stay in the slow lanes.
The planned upgrade has frustrated truckies, who make up 10% of the 45,000 vehicles using the road each day, as they say Brougham St adds 30 minutes to their trips.
Dom Kalasih, chief executive of Transporting New Zealand, said the upgrade was like “trying to make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear”.
In February, Transport Minister Chris Bishop, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger announced the Government would fund Brougham St improvements, after earlier axing the project.
The T2 lane will be reserved for buses and cars with more than one person (a similar T2 lane on the Christchurch Northern Corridor is not policed nor enforced). The original Brougham St project replaced car parks with a third lane.
The first stage of the project — a cycle/walking overbridge connecting Collins and Simeon streets — is set to begin in the coming months, while overnight work starts on Sunday until May 26 to dig a trench at various points along Brougham St between the Antigua St/Strickland St intersection and Colombo St to investigate underground utilities.
Work on wider road improvements, including the T2 lanes, turning arrows at lights, turn restrictions, and pedestrian and cycling facilities, will start in two years when additional land is bought and consents obtained, NZTA said.
Scott McAlister, managing director at logistics company Mackleys, said the street was “bad and getting worse”, but having access to T2 lanes would have had a significantly positive effect on freight.
“All the improvements are focused on pedestrians and cyclists. That’s fine, but it needs to conjointly be done [with freight],” McAlister said.
Some Addington residents did not want T2 lanes either, citing research showing adding lanes did not reduce traffic, and were frustrated the upgrade did not include their request for a lowered speed limit. However, they were relieved trucks would no longer drive right beside footpaths.
Addington Te Kura Taumatua School community liaison Jo Robertson said she understood the “tricky” balance between what was good for freight and for people.
But she was disappointed that after five years of community consultation the project did not reflect their requests.
“Although we didn’t always agree, we had a chance to speak. We’re not feeling that now. The project is prioritising people from outside Addington, rather than us.”
McAlister and Kalasih were two of many freight leaders who co-ordinated submissions to NZTA in 2022.
And while NZTA said it engaged with freight companies early on, Kalasih was not confident the upgrade would improve travel time predictability.
As advocates for the trucking industry, Transporting New Zealand suggested cyclists would be better in a separate lane next to the Waltham rail corridor to “substantially” improve safety.
It suggested NZTA change the Land Transport Road Use Rule to obligate pedestrians and cyclists to use facilities built for that purpose.
“However, there has been no progress with that,” Kalasih said.
Don MacKenzie, a Brougham St resident of 30 years, echoed this frustration. He said people would not use the cycle overbridge and would cross the road “whenever they can”.
He said the introduction of a T2 lane would not work as they’re not policed. “If there’s a free lane, [drivers] will use it.”
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