As with the work that has happened in other areas, traffic is down to one lane during the day (Monday to Friday, 9am–4pm) with stop/go traffic management in place so work can be safely carried out adjacent to the road.
It’s back to two lanes at weekends, and outside those working hours, but please take extra care. The 30km/h applies at all times to help keep everyone safe.
If you are biking, please share the lane with traffic at this point, or walk your bike through the pedestrian detour.
Workers have been excavating and preparing to lay more of the new kerb line through the bay so the next section of the two-way bike path can be asphalted later in the month.
We’re putting a new pedestrian crossing in just to the east of Kio Road as part of the project, and the new footpath will be laid in March.
Citybound buses are stopping in the usual spot in Kio Bay, but the eastbound stop has been temporarily relocated closer to Greta Point.
When it’s finished, the new harbourside stop in Kio Bay will look and operate like the recently completed one near Ōmarukaikuru/Pt Jerningham. There’ll be space next to the kerb where people can wait and get on and off buses, and red markings on the new bike path to encourage people riding to take extra care.
Further east on Cobham Drive, the clean-up and coastal protection work is complete, and our contractors are now able to finish the last sections of the walking and bike paths, reinstate the car park, and landscape the big area where the stock-piled boulders and construction compound were.
Apart from a few finishing touches, including the last of the planting which will happen in autumn, the work along Cobham Drive will be complete early next month.
The coastal resilience work, completed in tandem with the active transport improvements, was a big job.
Digger operators worked at low tide last year to remove more than 400 truckloads of potentially hazardous rusting steel, concrete, brickwork and other old reclamation materials from the shoreline.
They then carefully positioned 11,000 tonnes of rock to build a 430m-long rock bank, which has been engineered to spread the force of the sea in strong northerlies and better protect the road and new paths from storm surges and erosion.
Added benefits of the new rock revetment are that there will be less sea spray on the paths in strong winds, and plenty of great nesting spots for penguins in the nooks and crannies between the boulders.
All these changes are part of developing Tahitai, a coastal recreational and commuter walking and biking route between Miramar and the central city that people of all ages and abilities will be able to enjoy.
Tahitai forms part of Te Aranui o Pōneke/the Great Harbour Way – a regional aspiration which, bit-by-bit will make it possible to safely walk, jog, bike or scoot around more of the harbour.
With news last week that construction is likely to start later this year on Te Ara Tupua, the walking and biking link between Ngauranga and Petone; consents being sought for the Eastern Bays shared path on the other side of the harbour between Point Howard and Eastbourne; and our work, Te Aranui o Pōneke is on the way to becoming a reality.