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The Nelson Street Cycleway (Māori: Te Ara I Whiti, translated as, and commonly known as Lightpath) is a shared pathway for walking and cycling in Auckland, New Zealand. Stage 1 of the project was opened on 3 December 2015; stage 2 was originally to open in early 2016, but has been delayed and is now expected to continue late 2016/2017. Once completed, the route will give access from Upper Queen Street to the Auckland CBD and the cycleway along the waterfront. Stage 1 utilises an unused off-ramp in the Central Motorway Junction (CMJ) where State Highway 1 and 16 cross - this is the section that is called Lightpath - plus the first three street blocks of Nelson Street up to Victoria Street West.
Contents
- Route
- History
- Canada Street bridge
- Opening of stage 1
- Stage 2
- Usage
- Awards
- For Lightpath section or overall project
- For Canada Street Bridge section
- For project management
- References
Unique features of the old offramp are the hot-pink colour of its surface, and its LED mood lighting system that constantly changes; the latter feature inspired the Māori name.
Route
The chosen route starts at Upper Queen Street, linking there with the Northwestern Cycleway that has been extended to descend into Grafton Gully via the Symonds Street Cemetery. Turning off Upper Queen Street into Canada Street, a new bridge connects to the old Nelson Street off-ramp. The motorway infrastructure links into the urban road network at traffic lights at Union Street. From here, a protected cycleway runs along the left side of Nelson Street for three blocks, crossing Cook Street and Wellesley Street West at traffic lights. The route currently finishes at Victoria Street West, where the facility crosses the signalised intersection diagonally to the north-east quadrant.
History
In 2005, the motorway off-ramp that made a connection from the CMJ to Auckland's Nelson Street was closed and replaced with an upgraded ramp. The old Nelson Street off-ramp was difficult to reach for drivers coming from the Northwestern Motorway, as they had to weave to the right within the CMJ. The new Nelson Street off-ramp was opened on 3 July 2005 and allowed for the principle of keeping left when leaving the motorway.
The concept of using the old off-ramp as a cycleway appears to first arise in the Central Motorway Junction Walking and Cycling Masterplan 2012 by the NZTA. Max Robitzsch, a transport engineer and member of Bike Auckland, is credited with helping turn this idea into reality, inspired by New York's High Line. In May 2014, he organised a walking tour on the off-ramp for members of Cycle Action Auckland and the Auckland Transport Blog, and followed up with a blog post in which he proposed to link the off-ramp to the road network south of the city centre via a ramp build from scaffolding with Karangahape Road. In a follow-up meeting with Transport Agency staff, the idea found their support. And when the National government announced a NZ$100 million package for cycling infrastructure in August 2014 during the campaign for the 2014 election, the Nelson Street Cycleway was added to the list of projects in January 2015 by the Minister of Transport, Simon Bridges. The partners in this project were the NZ Transport Agency, Auckland Transport, and Auckland Council. Monk Mackenzie Architects were responsible for the urban and architectural design components.
Canada Street bridge
A 160 metres (520 ft) long bridge weighing 260 tonnes (260 long tons; 290 short tons) connects Canada Street to the former off-ramp. The bridge, designed by Novare Design was built in a workshop in Hamilton in eight sections and transported to Pukekohe for corrosion protection and painting. The southbound motorway lanes were closed overnight on seven occasions between 20 August and 10 September 2015 for preparations and to lift the bridge sections into place.
Opening of stage 1
In a video released by the NZ Transport Agency before the opening of stage 1 of the project, the Nelson Street Cycleway was called "New Zealand's most ambitious piece of cycling infrastructure". The project was opened by Ernst Zöllner (Regional Director Auckland/Northland for the Transport Agency), transport minister Bridges, Chris Darby (elected member of Auckland Council), and Barbara Cuthbert (chair of Bike Auckland, recently renamed from Cycle Action Auckland).
Stage 2
Stage 2 was expected to open in mid-2016, but is now not expected to start construction before end of 2016.
Usage
After less than a year, path usage (cycle counts only, without pedestrians) was at approximately 750 per day.
Awards
The project (or parts of the project) have won several awards or been finalists in award competitions: