Takau Street Ramp - now w/o metal hazard at bottom.
Takau Street Ramp – now w/o metal hazard at bottom.

We thought we would give you a recap of some of the infrastructure stuff that is currently going on, but which in many cases does not (or not yet) merit a full blog post:

  • On the Northwestern Cycleway, a variety of smaller projects created as part of a CAA – AT cooperation are finally coming along. Recently, the uneven ground under the Haslett Street footbridge was resealed, and a few days ago, AT removed the metal chicane at the bottom of the Takau Street ramp (west of Newton Road). AT plans to not reinstate bollards or chicanes here unless it becomes necessary. Also added were a number of new light poles through the darkest section between Bond Street and Newton Road (not sure whether they are switched on at night yet).
  • We recently met with the construction team of the St Lukes Interchange to discuss how cyclists will be provided for during the off-ramp reconstruction works. Hopefully, we have been able to achieve that major detours through the residential areas southeast of the interchange can be avoided (at least some shorter-distance detours will however be required still – these detours are likely to be for some 2-3 weeks this year, and some 2-3 months next year).
  • At the intersection of Great North Road / Ponsonby Road / K’ Road, we have been informed that the feeder cycle lanes on the west and east are finally to be greened later this month. Feeder cycle lanes from the north and south (Ponsonby Road and Newton Road) are still being processed and will hopefully be able to be approved.
  • We recently met with AT and NZTA to get updates on the Nelson Street Cycleway – progress is going well, though a couple major challenges are still to be overcome. An update on the AT section will have to wait a little bit longer – but we can report that AT are indeed being very active and even ambitious about it behind the scenes.
  • At Beach Road / Grafton Gully, we are collecting the “lessons learned” (thanks for your many comments, both praise and suggestions for improvement) and are hoping to work together with AT to improve things (but we’re not so crazy as to promise you anything we cannot control – so, yeah, we know you hate the signal phasings!)
  • At Carlton Gore Road, we still aren’t able to tell you news, except that AT still maintains that the cycle lanes will be done “this calendar year”, with the delays due to work on finding some residents without off-street parking new spaces elsewhere for what we understand were historical resident’s parking arrangements on-street.
  • At Tamaki Drive / The Strand, as many people will have noticed, the westbound cycle lane is finally in, after a rather grueling several years (!) of associated everything. But still not greened. At least the road cyclists that are so common here will now have a bit more space next to the trucks…
  • Down South, we are working with NZTA to improve the plans for Takanini Interchange for cycling – concentrating on not just removeing the major safety issues at this interchange as proposed in the initial plans, but hopefully also making the planned designs more convenient for use as well.
  • Myself and a growing team of other CAA associates are also providing input on numerous Corridor Management Plans. A bit like planting seeds – these strategic documents do not represent specific projects (yet) and have no allocated funding. But they are supposed to be the structure that guides AT in the future, both for smaller renewals / individual projects in the corridor – and when they do major wholesale changes. The more we can encourage them to have good cycle provisions in these documents early, the less advocacy we have to do later. Or at least that is the hope 😉
Tamaki Drive cycle lane - lined but not yet greened.
Tamaki Drive cycle lane – lined but not yet greened.

Note that these are the “smaller news items” – we also intend to do some more comprehensive blog posts soon on the East-West Link (down Onehunga-way), and regarding feedback to go to the NZTA regarding the draft results of the Cycle Safety Inquiry.

 

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