The proposal is included in preliminary plans for the new $1.4 billion Dunedin hospital.
The plans include a suggestion Cumberland St, now one-way northbound, be turned into a local road with reduced traffic, and Castle St, one-way southbound, become a two-way state highway.
The NZ Transport Agency said some traffic may be re-routed via Strathallan, Thomas Burns and Frederick Sts.
The move has been supported by the chairman of the Automobile Association Otago District, but NZTA regional relationships director Jim Harland said yesterday there were serious challenges that would have to be overcome.
If Castle St had two lanes each way north and south, there would be no room for cycle lanes or parking.If it was one lane each way, it would struggle to cope with demand.
The issue has been under discussion with various agencies since last year.
The change is mooted as the preferred option in the plan released yesterday by the Ministry of Health.
It notes the one-way streets taking cars north and south on either side of the hospital site between Cumberland and Castle Sts are "significant constraints".
The roads, both state highways, were the busiest in the central city, and created "a barrier to safe and easy pedestrian access to the building".
The plan lays out what it called "potential initiatives that may change the current road network in the vicinity".
Those included changing the one-way system to two-way, reducing the amount of traffic on Cumberland St, making Castle St the main north-south arterial route and slowing traffic on St Andrew St.
Mr Harland emphasised no decisions had been made, and detailed planning had yet to begin.
"This is an aspirational master plan from the hospital’s perspective at the moment."
Mr Harland raised right turns off a two-way highway as one problem such a change could cause.
Right turns across traffic meant a trade-off in terms of travel time and reliability.
Mr Harland said while it was "technically possible" to fit two lanes in each direction on Castle St, there would be "major implications" for the cycle lanes and parking.
Just one lane each way would struggle to take the number of vehicles that used the state highway.
"That’s why the whole thing has to be looked at as a network."
Mr Harland said an option that has been raised more than once in the last decade, of running traffic along Strathallan, Wharf and Thomas Burns Sts, then along by the railway track, up Frederick St, then back on to Cumberland St or Castle St, could be back on the table.
Reducing traffic on St Andrew St, which the hospital was suggesting, meant the east-west link needed to be "beefed up" elsewhere.
"The two likely candidates are Hanover and Frederick.
"That’s all part of the next bit of work to see which one would be better."
Staff would apply to the NZTA board in March for funding for a detailed study.
AA Otago District Council chairman Malcolm Budd said he had been involved in discussions on the roading changes, which he said were workable.
But roading authorities had to find a way to discourage traffic coming off the southern motorway from turning left into Andersons Bay Rd, rather than using Strathallan and Thomas Burns Sts.
The planned harbourside development could also affect the route.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said turning one of the streets, preferably Castle St, into a two-way main state highway, and Cumberland into a local road, was seen as the ideal.
All cycleways could be moved to Cumberland St, and taken off the state highway altogether.
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Madness at work again especially if Jim Harland has anything to do with it,and Dave you know as well as anybody else the cycleways should not have been in the one ways at all and they have turned out to be an outrageous waste of ratepayer/taxpayers money it's a disgrace and somebody should be held to account,you Dave and your yes men cronies once again.
Well said 100% agree and correct Front up Cull and Bidrose.
This must be a joke !! Mr Budd , Mr Cull do you ever drive around this City at peak times.....go spend some time on the road to see how utterly stupid this is! The town is already one huge roadblock from end to end.
I am not going to start on the cycleways waste $$$
It only became a problem caused by the siting of where the new hospital is being put. Now they want to change the roads, this may well become a cockup, someone didn't put their thinking cap on did they.
So what all the transport "experts" are really saying is that having a large construction site between two main roads is problematic and will likely cost the developers more money. Developers love to acquire traffic lanes to use as construction load points, ignoring the damage and disruption they cause.
There are ways around it without crippling the state highway. First off they can move the hospital. The site looks pretty on paper, traffic issues prove it may not be the best site.
Second option is use some of the land ear marked for future developments as the staging point. They do not need to use public roads just because it is a cheap option.
Third option it to build the long dreamed of northern highway to Kaikouri Valley link, removing all through traffic from the city. With links from the gardens area to Pt Chalmers.
Lastly I can't help smelling the DCC and their anti car philosophy around this. They would love nothing more than to ham string travel around and through the city. There's nothing wrong with having a fleet of freight rickshaws to replace trucks is there?
Mr Budd and Mr Hartland cannot be seriously considering this. The One Way system has worked brilliantly for over 50 years and still is the first choice for getting from A to B.
For motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and truck drivers crossing onto it or through it is a breeze. You know which way traffic is coming at you. Surely preferable to making a two way road carrying 4 lanes of traffic.
Build the hospital around them and leave them be or find another building site!
Utter joke in a city the size of Dunedin to have a two way state highway one. Oamaru,Timaru, Ashburton combined have less population than Dunedin and all have a 2 lane one way street both ways. This article does not say is this a plan simply for the rebuild i.e. to have heavy machinery over one lane for building or is this going to be permanent????? Only option I can think of is do this temporarily i.e. work on one side of the hospital at a time so one of the 2 lane one ways systems remains open and vice versa. Change traffic to flow through Stratallan and along back of railway station ."Important" to remove the traffic lights on Andy Bay Road and put in large roundabouts at all the intersections as flow will be much faster, change Strathan to two lanes one way towards city, and change speed limit to 60kph. Traffic must flow with no hold ups like lights or it will be a joke. Same with lights by railway crossing North end - make this a roundabout then connect back traffic to the 2 lane system. Easy! But it must revert back to 2 lanes each way when Exterior of Hospital is built
Completely agree with Mikenette - leave the One Way alone. Dunedin’s central city area is geographically constrained between the sea and hills and the One Way is the most obvious, common sense way to get access through an area which you can’t realistically go around.
It is good to know that the terminally incompetent are still alive and well and determined to destroy Dunedin. SH1 is an embarrassment to the Mainland, overseas visitors look at it askance. We have one of the worst accident rates in the OECD, I wonder why. It might be better if a group of 5 year olds are asked to plan the route through Dunedin, they couldn't do much worse.
Good to see all the usual knockers here. :)