Wednesday 6 December
Smooth ride along Hutt Road to be extended
The new improved walking and biking paths being built along Hutt Road will be extended next year, creating another
important link in the planned route from the north and Hutt Valley.
Wellington City Council’s City Strategy Committee has approved a plan to widen and resurface another section of the
pathway beside Hutt Road, going as far as the Tinakori Road intersection.
Portfolio leader for Public Transport, Cycling and Walking, Councillor Sarah Free, says Hutt Road is one of the city’s
busiest biking routes, so it’s great that this extension can be completed in tandem with the work already under way.
“Even with the work partly complete, people are seeing and experiencing the benefits of better surfaces, separate paths
for people riding and on foot, fewer lamp-posts and obstacles, and more obvious markings at driveways,” she says.
“There will be some work still to do to finish off the section north of Westminster Street when our contractors return
after the Christmas break – but they will then move closer to the city and begin upgrading the section south of the
Aotea Quay overbridge.”
With this additional section now approved, work will continue along Hutt Road until about mid-2018.
It will include creating about 70 new off-peak car parking spaces north of Westminster Street, and phasing out the
remaining footpath parking on this stretch of Hutt Road from early March. The new on-road parking will be a clearway
between 7am and 9.30am, so there will be two lanes for traffic during the busy morning peak, just as there is now.
Significant work will also be done over summer at the major Ngauranga intersection of Hutt Road, Centennial Highway and
Jarden Mile. The road will be resurfaced, bus lay-bys tidied up on both sides, and kerbs and crossings altered to make
things easier and safer for people on foot and bikes. This is expected to start in February and will take about three
months.
Widening the bike and pedestrian bridge over the Kaiwharawhara Stream has had to be carefully coordinated and timed, and
is now scheduled to happen after Easter.
Cr Free says the ferry fuel pipes beside the bridge have to be relocated before the bridge can be widened – something
that can only be done at a time of the year when there is less inter-island travel.
“Until the bridge is widened, people on bikes need to slow down and take extra care through this pinch point,
particularly when there are pedestrians using it.”
No changes will be made in the section between Tinakori Road and Davis Street at this stage.
The Council is considering possible ways to improve Aotea Quay to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
ENDS