As mentioned recently, the final section of the Quarryman’s Trail, from Hoon Hay to Halswell (3.5 km), is now completely open. We previously provided an overview of the first stage of the cycleway, so it’s time to provide a preview of what the next stage looks like (we’ll look at it heading towards town – click on any figures to enlarge).
We begin our journey at Te Hapua, the Halswell Community Centre on SH75 Halswell Rd. The cycleway begins as a two-way shared path heading north towards town alongside the road.
The cycleway then turns into Halswell Domain and winds past the playing fields and miniature railway towards Halswell on the Park.
Once through the Domain, the cycleway route crosses over William Brittan Ave into James Hight Drive where a 30km/h neighbourhood greenway starts.
James Hight Drive is already relatively quiet and additional speed humps ensure that the speeds stay low.
Back onto a shared path, the cycleway swings around onto Milns Rd and then crosses over into the drainage reserve leading to Sparks Rd.
At Sparks Rd, a new signalised intersection allows people to cross over to the other side of the road. There the two-way shared path continues along Sparks Rd towards town.
At Hendersons Rd, there is a new signalised intersection to help get the cycleway across the intersection.
The cycleway then continues as a separated cycleway to the urban boundary on Sparks Rd near Victors Rd in Hoon Hay.
From here the route continues via the rest of the Quarryman’s Trail through Hoon Hay and Spreydon, allowing a safe cycling route all the way from Halswell to town.
Have you ridden on the new part of the Quarryman’s Trail yet?
Stage 3 : Link to Halswell Quarry and Old Tai Tapu Road.
Stage 4: Then a link up to the Motukarara Rail Trail via Tai Tapu or Cossars/Macartneys Roads
These sound like excellent ideas, but I think a direct connection between Halswell and Prebbleton and the Prebbleton section of the Little River Trail (LRT) would also be an easy win. It would also make the cycle network more resilient. If, for example, there is a problem on the LRT between Prebbleton and the CBD, there will be an easy detour for many people.
Yes! Its so sad that in 2021 various new developments along the rest of Sparks Road haven’t continued a proper cycleway for all the cyclists, Halswell school and those who live closer to the quarry.
I’ve ridden out Sparks Road toward HJR, and the pathway is quite pleasant. Dropping back to the road shows how good the paths are.
It’s a shame that they always seem to design these cycleways as a single route only, with no regard to what else they could connect to – the roads are a network, not a collection of single routes. By continuing a couple of hundred metres down Sparks Road they could have provided a safe route for people going on to the quarry and Cashmere Road. Same at Barrington Mall: it comes close, but you still have to cross very busy roads to get there. They need to help these routes to connect to places that people actually go, within a network, if they are to actually improve cycling as a mode of everyday transport.
Agree. Those two destinations would really add a lot of value. It would also be good to get it connected up to the Little River Trail around Prebbleton as a decent number of people already commute in and out of Lincoln by bike and with more and more e-bikes and more and more subdivisions out that way, a link would get a lot of bike traffic
The wetland area off the Quarrymans track on Sparks road is a nice place to spend time and there is a really good skatepark in Halswell domain – my son and his friends scooter from Hoon Hay down the Quarrymans happily to get to it.
Yes agree, good comments from everyone.