With the Waterview Path up and running, we’ve fielded lots of questions about the New Lynn to Avondale link, which will run along the railway line and connect New Lynn Station to Avondale Station and the Waterview Path.
Good news! Auckland Transport has just issued a timely update and a map of the final route, which includes two new bridges and an underpass. Click on the image below to enlarge it, or check out the PDF version here: New Lynn to Avondale shared path map Nov 2017.
These are the major refinements to previous plans, after consultation and investigation:
- To account for the increase in train services, the path will not continue along the eastern side of the railway line past Chalmers Reserve, nor cross the railway line and road at the St Georges Road crossing as originally proposed. We understand that KiwiRail had strong opinions about AT’s plans…
- Instead: a new underpass will link Chalmers Reserve to the western side of the railway line where the path will continue through a Housing New Zealand development and along St Georges Road. [NOTE: Bike Auckland echoes the position of Women in Urbanism about making sure the underpass is wide, well-lit and welcoming so it feels safe at all times, with plenty of space and sight lines for people on foot and on bikes. Luckily, there are heaps of international models for how to create welcoming and attractive underpasses – and of course the artful Te Atatu underpass is a wee treasure. Hopefully, this one can join those ranks.]
- At the New Lynn end, the formal end of the path will (initially at least) be at New Lynn train station on Memorial Drive rather than crossing Clark Street and continuing to Rankin Avenue.
- At the Avondale end, a bridge will be constructed in the rail corridor to cross a steep area near St Jude Street and to enable the connection to Chalmers Street.
- The rest of the path retains the alignment that was presented during last year’s consultation.
You can see the detailed design plans and read the 2016 consultation report on the AT website.
The construction timetable is yet to come – but some work will happen over late December 2017/ early January 2018 while KiwiRail is doing planned maintenance on the railway line. So yep, those of you who’ve been eagerly wishing for a start on this project can count that as a Christmas gift!
Lastly, we’re delighted to see school kids included in the concept imagery for this project and we totally tautoko the last line of AT’s update:
Based on the growth in the number of people choosing to walk or ride their bikes for commuting and recreation, we anticipate this will be a popular community resource.
