Petone to Ngauranga Cycleway Update
Tom Halliburton
An update on the P2N project was given recently by NZTA.
The draft business case for this project has been completed and will be sent to Wellington and Hutt City Councils for their review. In the New Year it will be circulated around various parts of NZTA before public release, with a target release date in April 2015. This will be followed by a consenting process, expected to take 2 years. No funding has been approved for the project as yet.
The consultants, AECOM, are recommending the seaward side path, with the narrow path between the railway and road as a fall back alternative. The proposed path would have a 3 metre wide sealed surface with 0.5 metre margins on each side. The paving will be asphalt, strong enough to take vehicles, as the path would be used by railway maintenance vehicles.
Estimated cost is $40m, with a 95 percentile of $52m. NZTA need to allocate funds based on this higher value.
Use of fill from the Petone to Grenada (P2G) road is assumed. It is possible that work on this new road will begin in 2019. That project involves a very large amount of cut, but not much fill, so disposal is an issue. The cycleway project would take 5% of the surplus material form P2G. Estimates for the cycleway are being prepared to cover the possibility of the P2G road not proceeding. Some NZTA staff are optimistic about the P2G project because of the considerable time saving for freight from the north travelling to Gracefield. They believe P2G is the best option for this, and also reduces travel time for commuters between Porirua and the Hutt Valley.
In Kaiwharrawharra, a two way shared path is proposed. It would be 5 metres wide, with allocations to pedestrians and cyclists to be decided. It would be on the eastern side of Hutt Road. A likely layout working from the eastern side consists of building frontages, 2m pedestrian path, 3m cycling path, peak hour clearway used for parking off-peak, and finally a traffic lane. The path ends at the Aotea Quay overbridge.
Wellington City staff do not support this option. This is because of the high crash rate that occurs with cyclists travelling in the contra-flow direction on 2 way paths – drivers coming out of driveways sometimes only look left, then proceed when clear, but don’t check to the right for cyclists. WCC’s preference is for one way paths on each side of the road. This requires removal of a (north bound) traffic lane. With the impending addition of two extra lanes to SH1 between Ngauranga and Thorndon, this re-allocation of road space will become a viable option. Traffic signals would be needed for northbound cyclists at the Aotea ramp, and cyclists would probably cross back to the eastern side of Hutt road, onto the existing path, at the Homebush Road traffic lights.
At the Petone end, nothing is proposed for the Esplanade. For those continuing north on SH2, a path will continue north towards Petone station, cross the railway on an overbridge, and then cross SH2 on a clip on bridge added to McKenzie Avenue bridge. Cyclists will then have the option of looping around under that bridge to join the shoulder of SH2, or continuing along the existing meandering , footpath to the Dowse Interchange.
Important omissions from the project are any works on the Esplanade, and the Dowse Interchange southbound by-pass recommended in an earlier consultant’s report. The Dowse by-pass has not been included because AECOM consider there are excessive personal safety risks associated with a path located between a retaining wall and the railway line.
Paul Bruce
Tom Halliburton
My view would be that we’ll be doing extremely well to get a good path through Kaiwharrawharra into the NZTA plan – anything else at the Wellington end would be better treated as a separate project. A rail overbridge of some form & path along Aotea Quay sounds like a significant project in itself.
At a meeting today with NZTA, the P2N project manager came along for a short time. The SH2 Dowse by-pass in the rail corridor is being investigated in more detail, and there is now a good chance of having that included in the base project. This is a relatively simple addition as Kiwirail are being helpful, the need is well established, its supported by Hutt City Road & Traffic Division, and cost is likely to be less than $500,000.
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David & Helen Tripp
Patrick Morgan
So what are we going to do about it?
Is this a battle we can win?
The answer is to organise and advocate strongly.
Enlist supportive stakeholders.
Make your case to local MPs, NZTA and Councils, using both data and storytelling.
Plan a demo: "Why are we waiting?"
Don't take no for an answer.
I'll help in any way I can.
Patrick
Patrick
Morgan
Project Manager
CAN – Cycling Advocates Network
Tel 04-210-4967, Mob 027-563-4733, skype: patrick.morgan.can
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people on bikes, more often
Tom Halliburton
Bear in mind that the motorway widening is likely to occur in 2015. This is being done by converting the road shoulders into traffic lanes and adding active traffic management signs. There is no reason why the Kaiwharrawharra project could not be done quite soon.
P2G is scheduled for 2019. Given that consenting for the project may take 2 years, that takes us out to sometime in 2017.
The major missing link, in my opinion, is at the Hutt City end where absolutely nothing is proposed along the Esplanade. Hutt City have refused to consider anything so the $40m project ends …….. well, nowhere.