Hard News: Waterview: The giant up the road
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The Oakley bike path is not much use for cyclists coming from New Lynn though. A little open bike path actually on Gt Nth Rd would make a big difference. Better still, reduce the whole thing to one lane each way with a permanent bus/bike lane against each footpath each way. That'd get people out of their cars.
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BenWilson, in reply to
I think the proposed path leading to the bridge is a different one, and could be useful where the other is almost entirely scenic. It does not look like it's the trail beside the creek, but further up the ridgeline along the back of the Unitec campus.
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FletcherB, in reply to
It does not look like it’s the trail beside the creek, but further up the ridgeline along the back of the Unitec campus.
Which begs the question... If you're on it, having come up the (not yet existing but come 2017) rail-side path from New Lynn and Avondale... And assuming a significant minority, if not actual majority of such riders were intending to head towards the CBD on the NW cycleway... Why would you want to head across the creek westward (lovely and scenic bridge/path as it may be), just to drop down past the GT Nth Rd BP station to the depth of the waterview interchange and climb back up the eastward ramp to Carrington Rd past Unitec... when you could just immediately meander eastward from that path through the Tech or quiet side-roads to get to Carrington Rd and the Southerland St link to the cycle-way without the drop and climb?
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I assume the bridge is to give access westward along the NW cycle-way, not eastward into town.
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The whole path – including the bridges – was ordered by the approval authority as community mitigation, not transport mitigation (as NZTA’S lawyers argued that there was no legal case for a motorway being required to provide a cycleway along a tunnel route).
So the function of the bridge at Alford St is primarily to connect Waterview communities with local areas like the Phyllis Reserve sports field and Mt Albert- wider area cycle connectivity is a great secondary benefit, but not the first thought in its placement.
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Max Robitzsch, in reply to
And yes, pretty much the entirety of the path is "up high" with no dipping down to the creek. Partly for cycle comfort, partly for safety reasons (safer at night). That's also why bridges need to span so long.
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New official time-lapse video of the Alford Street bridge construction:
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Jason Kemp, in reply to
And there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the St Luke’s Road interchange by Western Springs.
Which they’ve managed to bollox up when it comes to the St Luke’s Road offramp
I'm bemused by the flow-on effects at that St Lukes interchange. For some reason the old small bridge by MOTAT has been replaced by one which is only slightly better and after almost 2 years is still not fully open.
It has a cycle lane on 1 side and a blocked lane on the other side? I wonder if the disruption to lanes around that bridge and all the extra concrete new traffic islands to block the new lanes is any better than what was there. Plus the actual disruption for 18mths? It seems that the disruption around the project is far worse than the problem it was attempting to solve. Does anyone know why there is a still one lane on that bridge blocked. It is right where a cycle lane should be.
It has always seemed to me that any change to the St Lukes motorway bridge was almost pointless because of the railway bridge bottleneck by Asquith Ave.
I'm sure that traffic engineering must be tricky as as soon as a new stretch of road opens regular users will change their traffic patterns but what has happened with the St Lukes Rd interchange just seems inexplicable.
It looks like they built a much wider bridge just so they can block off access by building new giant concrete traffic islands. Maybe that was revenge for not being allowed to cut down all the Pohutukawa trees? on the other side?
Those traffic islands might be useful for pedestrians waiting to cross over to Western Springs Stadium but for cyclists and drivers it is all a bit of a puzzle.
Does anyone know what is going on with the St Lukes interchange bridge - why isn't it finished or even fully open?
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Sacha, in reply to
Not in the know about timing etc, but I recall when the Pohutukawa trees were under threat reading that the whole rationale for this 6-lane bridge is to get more westbound traffic from Great Nth Rd onto the NW motorway and thence the Waterview tunnels. Is not intended to funnel more traffic towards St Lukes. Guessing they may not open all the bridge lanes until the tunnels are open.
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