Flyover’s got more names than Sinatra

Rā Hihi (the sun’s rays) – the name respectfully gifted by mana whenua, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. Photos supplied Anton Benadie / Mark Barber

What other titles can we give the roading super structure?

It’s only weeks old and this thing’s got more nicknames – alias – than the late-great Frank Sinatra – the Chairman of the Boards, ’Ole Blue Eyes, Swoonatra, La Voz, The Sultan of Swoon.

Rā Hihi (the sun’s rays) – the name of the now fully operational flyover road in the Pakūranga town centre vicinity that was respectfully gifted by mana whenua, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.

The super structure – at $152 million, a bargain at more than $4m under budget – has been known for a couple of decades as the Reeves Road Flyover.

Pakūranga MP Simeon Brown uses that expression. His office gazes proudly at it from across Pakūranga Road – a monument to his legacy, and as a former Minister of Transport.

As many elected members did, he campaigned long and hard for it, on behalf of ratepayers and taxpayers, the motoring constituency.

Because I’ve been writing/reporting about the Rā Hihi flyover and Eastern Busway subject every week for weeks, because public interest is strong, I thought it was time to take another angle and hopefully, an attempt at light-hearted news observation.

As it does generate a lot of emotions and reaction-and-response comments, often frustrations.

Though, sometimes, we just have to have a good-natured laugh.

A few weeks ago, I thought to introduce another descriptive name for Rā Hihi – Pakūranga overpass. To vary up the language as writers do.

Later, scanning some readers’ comments on social media on a recent story headlined ‘Full Acceleration for Rā Hihi Flyover’, some were enjoying entering into the spirt of the “many names game”.

Someone chimed in with Pakuranga Flyover. Yes, it is that. And someone else suggested the Reeves Road Bridge.

I do believe it definitely is a dual carriageway, too – the Pakuranga Dual Carriageway.

Could it be a causeway? The Pakuranga Causeway? An old Concise Oxford Dictionary reads: ‘Raised road across low or wet place or piece of water.’

And as the Mayor, Wayne, and the local MP, Simeon, were publicly elected members responsible for the project’s delivery and attended the opening ceremony, how about The Brown Bridge?

It is a bridge. Could it be The Edgewater to Pakuranga Bridge?

There’s also been a bit of talk too about the lack of a medium barrier down the middle of the four lanes with spread-out power poles.

Maybe there was a budget cut along the way? Or it wasn’t deemed necessary being a 50kph speed limit?

Anyway, most of us will eventually like it, te Rā Hihi Flyover. We’ll come to appreciate and motor over it happily. It’ll beat doing that traffic lights-ridden dogleg around Pakuranga Plaza.

Soon enough, it will integrate into our lives and become second nature.

If you’d like to keep the names creation going, email phil@times.co.nz or message me on social media. Right, I’m off to drive over the flyover, both ways.

Beep beep, happy motoring, east Auckland.