New Southeastern Cycleways coming along

The cycleway construction season is in full swing across the city. The other day I got the chance to see how progress is going on two cycleway sections in the southeastern part of the city; the Heathcote Expressway in Woolston and the Rapanui – Shag Rock Cycleway in Ferrymead.

First a quick look at the final section of the Heathcote Expressway route, heading from near The Tannery towards Heathcote Valley. The first section, providing a shared path adjacent to the one-way Cumnor Tce is already completed.

It looks good, although I am wondering how you actually access some of the entrance points to The Tannery shops easily from it, as I couldn’t see much in the way of gaps in the separators…

The intersection with Maunsell St is currently where the path works have got to; the route under construction then continues to wind its way around the Heathcote River with a mix of pathway and some boardwalk structures even.

The cycleway route continues to make its way through the Woolston industrial area and then runs alongside SH74 heading towards Ferrymead Heritage Park. The entire route is planned to be completed by February – maybe we’ll even be able to ride on it to Nostalgia Festival…

Now onto progress of the Rapanui – Shag Rock cycleway at Ferrymead. You may recall that progress was stalled for a while at Charlesworth Reserve as two different route options were considered and finalised. That final section here is now completed and already being used, but there will be a little official opening ceremony this Thursday 8th Dec at 10am.

The cycleway now pops out onto Humphreys Dr and runs alongside the road past the Ferrymead shops. I can’t say I’m a big fan of the crossing points at the two entrances to the carparks though…

Now we come to a new signalised crossing to get the cycleway over to the estuary side. The signals seem pretty responsive on approach, so that you don’t have to wait long at all.

On the other side, the cycleway now runs alongside Tidal View, which also has its speed limit reduced.

The kerbing between the path and the road is cleverly designed to be flush so that riders can elect to use the quiet roadway instead if they wish. At the eastern end, the cycleway then joins up with the Coastal Pathway heading towards Sumner.

The project has also created some very attractive public spaces by the waterfront, with picnic tables and bike parking to enjoy.

But wait, there’s more! One minor problem with the route through Charlesworth Reserve is at night time when there is no lighting available (due to being a sensitive ecological reserve). So your alternative then was to stay on the narrow Humphreys Dr cycle lanes, which were never much fun with 70km/h traffic whizzing past. However, that has now been improved…

Humphreys Dr now features buffered cycle lanes with a 60km/h speed limit; this makes for a much improved alternative option. And as this route approaches the cycleway re-entering from Charlesworth Reserve at the top, there is another set of traffic signals to help eastbound riders to get across the road safely.

Even after the route rejoins the Rapanui – Shag Rock cycleway path, on-road cycle lanes remain for more confident riders to use towards town. And it’s nice to have multiple options for riders to choose whether they want to take on-road or off-road routes towards Ferrymead and beyond.

So that’s all really good progress on a few more bits of major cycleway around the city. Meanwhile, on the west side of town, work has also been quite steady on extending the South Express cycleway through Sockburn and towards Hei Hei and Hornby. I’ll go and have a look some time and report back on progress…

Have you seen some of the new cycleways yet?