Construction of the Heathcote Expressway has been ticking along over summer. Already you can ride from Wilsons Rd (near the old stadium) through Charleston and Woolston to The Tannery. Most of the route is a 30km/h neighbourhood greenway treatment, with a new signalised crossing of Ensors Road that we featured earlier.
At Garlands Road, the current terminus of the route ends with a new signalised crossing of this busy road at Cumnor Tce (by the river), making access to and from The Tannery a lot easier…
The good news keeps on coming. Work is just starting on the section closer into town along Wilsons Rd and Ferry Rd, the scene of some contention and design revision a year ago. And, thanks to additional transport subsidy now available from NZTA, the next stage from The Tannery to Heathcote Valley will begin construction later in the year.
Have you ridden the Heathcote Expressway yet?
I rode this today, all the way from the Tannery to Wilsons Road. Well laid out and easy to navigate. Certainly a more pleasant ride than down Ferry Road! The 30kph signs are fairly prominent but I was passed by several vehicles doing a lot more than 30 and bouncing over the sleeping policemen/road humps but I guess it may settle down after a while. I now have two good routes from Ferrymead into town and feel somewhat embarrassed – but not for long! Here’s to the completion of both routes soon…..
I rode to the Tannery yesterday, after last having been there in December. As far as I can see, there isn’t any bike parking there other than wheel benders (as I like to think of them: parking for toy bikes). I had pointed that out to them back in December in an e-mail, but did not get a reply. I find this a little odd. With the cycle way, I’d be willing to go to the Tannery, but if they are not taking advantage of having this cycle way go by them, I won’t (I did turn around and went for supper in the CBD instead). It just makes me wonder: how many businesses are not providing any proper facilities for cyclists, but plenty of car parking, and then say that none or few of their customers come via bike?
The poles in the middle of the cycle lanes on Cumnor Tce after the crossing are also quite something. I don’t think I’ll be able to navigate those with a cargo bike.
Actually – sorry to reply to my own post – this is a little confusing. As far as I can tell, the revised February 2017 plan envisioned a shared path along most of Cumnor Tce (https://ccc.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Transport/Cycling/Heathcote-Revised-Scheme-Plans-Optimized.pdf, p. 14), but that doesn’t seem to have materialized. Will that still be built or has that been scraped altogether? If it were built, that would presumably get rid of these odd poles that exclude cargo cycles from using the crossing.
The revised consultation plans describe reverting some of Cumnor Tce now to neighbourhood greenway to minimise the impact on the riverfront (https://ccc.govt.nz/transport/cycling/major-cycle-routes/cycle-routes/heathcote-expressway-puari-kikahukura/). But even the revised plans provided there are different to the final product, so presumably some further detailed design tweaks occurred. I’d say the poles are to prevent access by motor vehs (who have to u-turn now), but they certainly shouldn’t be designed to restrict bikes (e.g. 1.5m gaps would stop cars).
(This might or might not end up being in a confusing position, I am not sure where the reply button will put this). The revised plan says there will be a shared path on Cumnor Tce between Garlands Rd and and Marshall St, which is not there yet. It would be good if that were built, although it is odd that there is no indication that the current state is temporary. Maybe that shared path would not be super-necessary in a perfect world, but on our way back after our inability to find bike parking at the Tannery, we did have two close encounters with cars racing along Cumnor Tce within maybe 30-60 seconds, both coming from Garlands Rd and accelerating quickly right after making their turn.
To update: The council newsletter from 16 Aug 2019 states there is “a small section of cycleway on Cumnor Terrace [to be] completed “, so presumably, that will close the gap.