Auckland is already getting benefits through the electrification of the rail network. All over the city bridges are being improved or replaced in order to accommodate the overhead wires for the new trains, mostly this involves road bridges but in a couple places we are getting new foot and bike bridges. And nowhere is the result better than at Pt Resolution, the bridge to the Parnell Baths.
Quick work by the Waitemata Local Board secured sufficient funding for a really beautiful result in time to fit in with the electrification programme. The structure crosses Tamaki Drive as well as three rail tracks and the inlet to Judges Bay in three spans before arriving at the somewhat unstable headland of Pt Resolution.
Each span is supported by a single elegantly tapering steel column that then goes on to cradle the patterned concrete structure of the bridge itself in an almost invisible way; at the last moment the the columns bifurcate and wrap around the hull-like underside of the bridge deck only to spilt again and flow in a very fluid rise above the line of the bridge to meet the corresponding motion from the next column like the peak of a wave.
A second stage will connect to the fabulous Parnell Baths in all their modernist glory. The all white new bridge is an elegant complement to the colourful optimism of the Baths which were designed by Hungarian émigré architect Tibor Donner in the early fifties [Baths pre-history here] who was also responsible for a number of important examples of Auckland’s Modern heritage.
The new bridge was designed by architects Simon Dodd and Dean Mackenzie at Warren and Mahoney and in my view is a very lovely thing indeed:
I got an ever so slightly strange look from Dean Mackenzie when I said that the cantilevered end over the harbour evokes something of the quality of the Sperm Whale: As in it’s both curvilinear and orthogonal; at once curvy and boxy; like that great big dented suitcase of a sea-mammal [Moby Dick of course- The white whale]. While I think we can assume this wasn’t an image they had in mind during the design process Simon Dodd did refer both to the old White Heron Hotel that used to be on the Point and the history of Mechanics Bay as the home of Flying Boat services as influencing images.
Clearly there are multiple nautical references in the structure; its waka-like form, proudly help up in the air like the America’s Cup yacht cradled in a similar structure at the other end of the same road, its ship-shape crisp all white palette, and the engraved patterns set into the concrete by artist Henriata Nicholas. These are based on traditional carving on wakahuia or carved treasure boxes. The pattern is called pungarungaru or wavelike, rippling. Which seems more than appropriate as, after all, the harbour’s name Waitemata, means ‘sparkling water’:
So good work by everyone involved, including the members of the Waitemata Local Board who also insisted on the addition of bike wheel channel on the side of the stairs to make taking bikes up and down the bridge easier [sorry I didn’t shoot this]. Underneath the bridge on Tamaki Drive there are a pair of bus stops so there’s no excuse for not taking a quick visit to check out this lovely new amenity for the city.
Of course what it really needs now are some shiny new electric trains to complete the scene…. [and help keep the bridge stay white]
Another example of how we can improve the function and the delight of our city if only we choose to- this will be a very long lasting asset for all Auckland.
Perhaps Pt resident John Key could wander down to this bridge and reflect on the role of investment in good design and transformative infrastructure has play in lifting the performance of this country’s biggest city?
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Beautiful images and a fantastic bridge.
My favourite aspect of it is the view you get from on top of the bridge heading towards the sea.. which gives the impression of being on the top deck of a liner. If you cross the bridge after dark there’s an extra wow factor from the LED lights hidden in the underside of the handrail.
Agree the new bridges are great. The new cycle / foot bridge over the southern motorway and railway line at Mt Hobson looks cool too.. maybe I’ll run over that way at the weekend.
Beautiful. But does your ‘second stage’ comment mean it does not currently connect with the Baths?
Yes, that’s being built now, the emphasis was on meeting the electrification programme for the section over the rail lines, and I guess restoring the ped route to Tamaki Drive. The Baths section will be up- using the same forms in a couple of months…. And the Baths are closed over winter.
I see that they have an higher glass “wall” over the rail section,
Has it been confirmed with KiwiRail that no additional infrastructure is required to meet their safety requirements with electrification?, it would be a shame to see those yellow and white fibreglass panels added to such a stunning piece of art.
Yes. The somewhat regrettable bump in the glass is in order to satisfy KR’s safety demands. Could be worse.
Fortunately there are no idiots or taggers in Parnell who might climb onto the bridge supports, which are easy to access despite the raised screens over the railway line.
Well build and looks good at night too.
Great work, although the previous bridge did have a certain something about – a naive charm – that whispered of old Auckland. And in the summer you could see the local kids jumping off it into the creek. Still, some things do gotta change. By the way – no idiots in Parnell? Hmmmm…..
Old bridge indeed did have a rough DIY charm, a bit like an old garden shed, but painted blue. And, like almost everything to do with rail in NZ, was basically falling down and unsafe through neglect.
One idiot in Parnell lives in a $10M mansion and thinks he knows what is best for New Zealand. Yeah right.
[troll] Oh dear, think of all the people urinating, burgling and discarding rubbish on St Stevens Ave because of this pedestrian/cycle link. Poor local residents, their livelyhoods have been ruined. [/troll].
1/2 mil each should do the trick… that’s ‘phil’ of the NRA’s price to have to look at another human not in a car….
I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t get tagged at some point, regardless of where the taggers are from… lovely bridge all the same.
Yes, a fine looking bridge that joins other decent looking pedestrian bridges that have appeared over motorways in the last 10 years. No threats either for design awards from the eyesore that crosses from Jacobs Ladder to Westhaven (practical though it is).
“…that crosses from Jacobs Ladder to Westhaven…”
Don’t tell the Northcote Residents association, they’ll have a fit if they realise there is a corridor for the scum and wildlife of central Auckland to access Westhaven and heaven only knows where all that will lead.
The Jacobs Ladder bridge is really much better looking from the inside out than outside looking in. Plus, where else in the world can you ride a bicycle out of an elevator?!
Now that I have to try.
+1
Hasn’t bridge design come a long way in the past 10 years?
That bridge got replaced because the old one was structurally unsound and at risk of collapse. Electrification had nothing to do with it
Wrong. Electrification has everything to do with when, how, and what is there now. And yes as I said above the old bridge was unsafe, that was a contributing factor.
Wrong. If the existing bridge was in perfect condition it would have just been raised rather than replaced.
The fact is that the bridge has been in need of replacement for about the last 10 years and has been limited to a safe working load
One of us seems to be lacking some perspective here – why is this detail important enough to argue over?
The point is that it has nothing to do with the electrification and therefore is not one of the benefits it’s just a bridge that just so happens to be by a rail line.
This is similar to some of the overstated benefits of the CRL.
So it wouldn’t have happened if electrification hadn’t occured, yet electrification had nothing to do with it.
Also, what overstated benefits?
Not quite SB. If there were no electrification going on it still would of happened, maybe just a year or two earlier or latter.
How can you possibly try and argue that without any outside citations? Why would it not have just been strengthened if not for the electrification?
Because the bridge had reached the endof it’s design life. Strengthening would have required near complete replacement and would have likely cost more than actual replacement, like what they ended up doing.
As I mentioned below, it’s appears the bridge would have actually been fine to provide minimum clearance.
Ok, so the electrification just hurried it along, still something to do with the decision mate.
Cont. Of 5 people for the last few years.
The bridge was not high enough to clear the catenary wires. The combination of having to strengthen as well as elevate the main span is probably what got it replaced, as opposed to the old bridge just being strengthened.
Actually. Just looking it on street view it looks like it’s height was fine. All you need is 5.1m and it appears to provide for this. This is less than the desirable clearance and you still would need shielding installed but it appears the clearance wad not too bad.
Mind you I don’t have any actual levels.
From the information I have got SF Lauren is correct. Engineers indicated the old bridge was in very poor shape and needed to be replaced in a very short timeframe. It has been unsafe for large numbers of people to use, and hence i understand that it was closed while events such as round the bays were on to prevent it being packed with spectators.
I quite liked the heritage charm of the old bridge, so am a bit sad to see it go.
The only interaction with the electrification program I believe is that the new bridge was rushed through to avoid working above the 25,000v rail traction wires that are soon to be installed.
Unfortunately this meant the bridge was out of service during the peak summer season (Parnell baths is only open in the summer). This resulted in increased impact on the community.
For example:
– Access between the parnell baths, and tamaki drive bus routes & curbside parking was severed. – congestion on the streets surrounding parnell baths significantly increased (inconvenient but not really a big deal) .
– Parnell residents access for summer walks along the tamaki drive coast was cut.
– Our access to our nearest frequent bus route was severed.
Really impact on the community would have been minimised if this project could have been done in winter.
I must say I think the new bridge is visually stunning.
Of course both the state of the old bridge and the need for higher clearance and better separation because of the electrification programme were both drivers for the new structure. However the old bridge has been rickety for decades and nothing was done about it. The electrification programme was the ‘efficient cause’ of action actually occurring, as it has been elsewhere all over the rail network, like the new bridge near the Remuera station. So Mr Lauren is just flat wrong when he says; ‘Electrification had nothing to do with it.’
The electrification programme has everything to do with the timing and it actually happening at all. The final form, and the fact that it is such a strong sculptural result is largely down to the wishes of the local board and the additional funding that they secured. So as you can see there are multiple causes for the outcome we have but the event that provided the urgent need for the work is the electrification of the rail network. Without that we may either have a cheap do-up or absolutely nothing at all and more years of talk and no budget.
Furthermore I am baffled as to the point of trying to assert this; does it annoy a traffic engineer that we are cerebrating this work and that it is associated with improvements to the rail network? Can’t for the life of me see the point in trying to deny facts that are as plain as day. Is he bothered by money being spent on aesthetics? Who knows? But there it is.
There seems to be conflicting information about the reason for the upgrade.
The net result though is a stunning new bridge. While I think this is a victory for the city as a whole I think the credit should lie with the Waitemata Local Board as opposed to the electrification project.
It appears the bridge was in chronic poor structural health (less than 6 mouths of safe use left), and the kiwi-rail electrification project caused the rebuild to be brought forward to last summer, as opposed to this winter (which would have had a much lower impact on the community).
The impression I got from the flyers in my letterbox (I live locally) was the reason that reason electrification impacted on the timing was due to constriction risk.
The Auckland council project page indicates that the electrification only impacted timing.
“Engineering reports identified corrosion of the steelwork in the old section that was judged to only to be safe for a further six months. The bridge was closed in March 2012 for repairs to allow continued use of the bridge while a long-term solution was identified.
The Waitemata Local Board selected a redesigned contemporary structure to replace all three spans of the bridge.
The best time to replace the bridge was over the summer period before the KiwiRail electrification project begins.”
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/PLANSPOLICIESPROJECTS/COUNCILPROJECTS/Pages/pointresolutionbridgereplacement.aspx
The architect for the project does however state that the bridge needed to be raised to allow for electrification: http://www.warrenandmahoney.com/en/portfolio/point-resolution-bridge/
Anyway I look forward to evening strolls across the bridge next summer.
Bottom line is that I think credit should go where credit is due, and in this case I think it is due to the Waitemata Local Board.
It point is that you are claiming benefits being from electrification even though it had nothing to do with it.
This seems to be typical here when talking about benefits of pet projects that every benefit that’s only remotely related gets claimed as being a direct result.
Of course when it comes to projects you don’t like you do the reverse imagining disbenefits whilst ignoring the actual benefits. The way you rubbish the additional harbour crossing being a perfect example.
All I’d like to see is a bit more honesty.
‘All I’d like to see is a bit more honesty’.
Exactly.
So stop lying with this utterly false statement: ‘electrification had nothing to do with it’. You have been corrected above; now suck it up.
Constant repetition of an inaccuracy does not make it so.
From what we have seen, the only thing electrification had to do with it was that it made future replacement harder.
Is this the benefit you are claiming we are seeing? That electrification makes things harder to replace in the future?
You are right, construction could have been done in winter, but for the fact that KiwiRail charges a ‘block fee’ of a good part of $500k to block the lines and pay for replacement buses and trucks during the time the lines would have been closed to erect the bridge.
That’s $500k neither the Local Board or the Governing Body had spare, so the tough decision was made to undertake works during the normal Christmas/Solstice/New Year shut down period, which would not cost Council.
I am very grateful to the many who suffered during this period, their forberance is appreciated!
Thanks
Christopher.
You missed a view from the end of this, it really offers an amazing panorama overlooking the harbour. Can’t wait for some better walking/cycle connections from the CBD and then could be a real attraction. The part of Tamaki drive it crosses is really rather dreary and a defacto motorway despite being so close to the CBD.
Second that.
Tamaki Drive has two bike lanes the length of the four-lane section and neither of them is really ride-able above about 20 k. They got resurfaced in 2011 but the southern side one is still a back-breaker and completely useless, unless you want some off-road training in your morning commute. Actually it’s worse than useless, because the fact that it’s there makes some drivers think it’s compulsory for cyclists to use it and feel the need give the finger to any cyclists on the road on their way past.
The proposed cycle track across Hobson will help for some routes anyway. I hear that is in planning? I once saw a Greenways proposal to extend that idea across Judges Bay next to the railway embankment.
The Hobson Bay connection has been studied at least 3 times now (i.e. by AT and/or NZTA, depending on study). As usual, it tends to be money, not feasibility, that is the reason why it hasn’t happened yet.
Tamaki Dr is being looked at currently, with a big focus on improving cycling provision (regardless of Hobsons Bay).
The cycling improvements for Tamaki Drive have lost all their steam. Time for another cyclist or two to die, so AT remembers?
Wonderful. Compliments to all involved, and to Patrick once again for some lovely photography. Here are some other complementary images, from W & M themselves, and from Sydney at Eye on Auckland.
Auckland Transport should highlight the details of things like this as benefits of the upgrade. It’s worth celebrating!
http://www.warrenandmahoney.com/en/portfolio/point-resolution-bridge/
http://eyeonauckland.com/2013/05/architecture-5/
Oh, the Warren and Mahoney ones are Patrick’s shoot! Forgive the replication.
Another link, this time to the project page, with a helpful picture and reminder of the state of the old decrepit 1927 bridge. Not everything old has sufficient ‘heritage’ value to keep at all costs. Heritage is merely one of many competing values.
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/PLANSPOLICIESPROJECTS/COUNCILPROJECTS/Pages/pointresolutionbridgereplacement.aspx
Not everything old is heritage, but the old bridge did have heritage value as one of the fast-disappearing bowstring-type railway footbridges. The one at Papakura was demolished as part of that station’s rebuild, and that distinctive style of bridge is now history in Auckland, I think.
Thank you Patrick for this write up and the stunning photos. Our Chair, Shale Chambers was really instrumental in pushing this project along in a very short timeframe and had to work hard to find the budget to cover the cost. Everyone involved in the project has done an amazing job and should be congratulated.
A photo of the cycle channel feature is available here http://caa.org.nz/general-news/quickpost-cyclists-going-upstairs/ (Christopher Dempsey got to be the first to try it out at the opening)
I thought you would have been first Pippa.
Is the handrail easy to use when reaching over the channel?
My bike is over 20kg so I wasn’t in a hurry to push it up the channel (and there was no chance me beating Christopher to it anyhow as this feature is his baby!)
I know there was a lot of debate about whether the channel could create safety issues for peds but I am pretty sure it is tucked neatly under the handrail so shouldn’t be a trip hazard.
Are the stairs up to Parnell eventually going to get bike channels too?
Hi, not sure if the channels are continuing up, pretty sure they are. Will check and let you know.
Thanks
Christopher.
Another pretty Auckland bridge! Auckland, City of Bridges. There could be a tour of them for the train (bridge) spotters out there.
Very nice bridge. I saw it from the bus on Sunday, impressive.