Another series of consultation events that will happen this week will be for the East West Link and the replacement of the Old Mangere Bridge.
Communities will get the chance to have their say about two significant transport projects in their area – the East West Connections and the replacement of the of the old Mangere bridge.
The NZ Transport Agency and Auckland Transport say there is an open invitation for people to attend three community days planned for later this month. Two of them – at the Onehunga night market (Thursday 24 July, 6pm-10pm) and at Sylvia Park shopping mall near the foodcourt (Sunday 27 July, 10am-1pm) – focus on the East West Connections project. The third – at Waterfront Road Reserve, Mangere Bridge (Saturday 26 July, 10am-4pm) – will focus on both the East West Connections and the next stage of replacing the old Mangere bridge.
The Transport Agency’s acting Highways Manager, Steve Mutton, says the community days deliver on earlier commitments from the Agency and Auckland Transport to work with local people.
“We want to build on the great feedback we’ve had from people to replace the bridge and carry that on into the East West Connections programme. This is the latest step for us to ensure that we fully understand what people are experiencing when travelling in Onehunga, Mt Wellington, Otahuhu, Penrose, Mangere and East Tamaki,” Mr Mutton says.
Community input will help the Transport Agency and Auckland Transport develop their East West Connections programme to improve commuter and freight links, public transport and walking and cycling options over the next 30 years.
“We have already identified freight issues that need immediate attention in Onehunga-Penrose – that’s a key priority given the area’s importance for jobs and the Auckland and New Zealand economies. We will be working with stakeholders and the community in coming months as investigations progress for those improvements.
“But we are not losing sight of the issues people are facing in the wider area. The vibrant communities in the area are likely to experience a growth in the number of people who chose to live and work in them. The predicted growth will put additional pressure on the existing transport network”
“We’ve already identified the need to improve reliability of public transport between Mangere and Sylvia Park – there will be other areas for improvement. We want the conversation with local people now so that as we progress with improvements in Onehunga-Penrose, we can also continue to work with communities to address their issues,” says Mr Mutton.
The community day at Mangere Bridge on 26 July will also be a chance for people to see the proposed design for the new bridge connecting Onehunga and Mangere Bridge.
“The earlier feedback from the community was a catalyst for the project and guided the bridge design,” Mr Mutton says. “We’ve worked hard to integrate the community’s requests, and we’re optimistic that they will be pleased with our design when they see it.”
Some features of the original bridge will be retained, with the new structure curving towards the motorway bridge. It will be high enough for small boats to pass underneath. A wider span also means that some form of opening for larger craft is not precluded in future. Two artists have been commissioned to incorporate the area’s history and values into the design through art.
“Replacing the old bridge and the East West Connections are two very different projects with one similar outcome – helping the Transport Agency and Auckland Transport get the best solutions to improve the area’s transport network. We want to hear the views of people to help achieve that,” Mr Mutton says.
On the East West Link it will be interesting to see if they actually show what they plan to do for the project or if they will just talk about the need for it. This is especially the case as I know they showed business and road lobby groups exactly what they plan to build about 7 months ago.
We can get a bit of a background as to what they will show from some of the information on the AT website including this image which highlights all the issues they’ve identified in the area.
For a big click the photo or for the original it’s from here (5MB).
This image (on the NZTA website) shows all of the projects going on in the area.
As for the Old Mangere Bridge Replacement this newsletter shows a couple of impressions of what it may look like.
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Nothing slows the NZTA down.
Truckloads of moneys to spend on roads whle Key and Brownlee snub Auckland over CRL.
I can’t believe that the old Mangere Bridge wasn’t replaced years ago. The motorway bridge was never meant to be a local access bridge. Time to bite the bullet Auckland
The link to the map on the NZTA website doesn’t work for me, but the bit shown above doesn’t include all of the transport projects taking place in the area since it doesn’t mention rail electrification.
The 1st map shows bad local connections from Penrose to SH2 & SH20, I would be worried if Penrose did have a good connection with SH2 ☺
Would find this community outreach from NZTA on east/west issue more convincing if the map mentioned the dis-benefit all their massive roading around Onehunga has on place quality. Totally severed a long standing Auckland community from its foreshore, the Neilson SH20 links further sever and blight the Onehunga retail and light commercial district.
Are going some way to righting these wrongs anywhere in their consciousness? I see they now see value in mentioning cycling as within their ambit, which is good, but getting them to take into account place value too still looks like a long shot.
What is wrong with the old Mangere bridge anyway?
Crumbling away. Corrosion in the old renforced concrete. At least I understand that is the main reason why it’s not very sensible to maintain it for much further – costs will just keep going up.
Plus, NZTA wants to hand the bridge link over to AT, but can’t just give them a structure about to fail soon…
That’s basically right. It did get some repair after it was bashed about by shipping in the 1990s and 2000s.
The current bridge is also a barrier to recreational use of the upper harbour. Currently you can only get a small boat under the bridge at low tide. The upper harbour (like all the Manukau) is beautiful and interesting, and is a hidden gem. I’m confident that increased use will help have it protected from inappropriate harbourside development.
It is one of the major placemaking structures in the Mangere – Onehunga area, and so I’m glad they’ve decided to replace it adequately, and listened to feedback about their initial designs, which were too small to be useful to residents.
How about the future rail bridge and airport rail? How will that fit in with both these projects?
AT needs to get it’s act together and designate the route to the airport.
Who proof read the transport issue doc? – “Poor local connections to SH2”
I hope someone asks at the Open Days whether they have already identified which PT and walking/cycling projects now proposed are slated to be cut a few months after the project gets Government fast-track funding? That is important information for correctly greenwashing any project.
No mention of improvement of pedestrian and cycling connections connections over the Tamaki River between Pakuranga and Panmure/Mt Wellington or of pedestrians throughout the region with its numerous intersections which appear to reject pedestrians completely.
If you can bicycle or walk to a railway station you are far more likely to use a train.
Can they not throw the money into something more wise! The bridge may be old, but still does the trick. #priorities
But it won’t do the trick for much longer. The concrete is crumbling away. NZTA estimate it only has 5 years of life left before it will have to be closed permanently.
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/old-mangere-bridge/
In addition to what my namesake posted, there only needs to be one more unfortunate ship-strike incident and the bridge will probably have to be closed regardless of its projected future life. It’s already been hit by ships in the fairly recent past. including one occasion where a ship under full power and with a tug got dragged into the bridge by the current. The replacement will be further east, helping to mitigate the risk of future strikes.
It’s a good prioritisation of money, and it’s pretty cheap. Even if it blows out to the full $20m that’s still a fraction of the budget of any capital roading project and it’s providing amenity for cyclists, pedestrians and recreational fishers. The alternative route under the motorway bridge is, to put it politely, an unpleasant path, and completely unsuitable for use at night because of its total isolation.
Glad to see that my and others’ concerns about the significantly-reduced proposed width of the replacement OMB have been accounted for with the protruding bays that allow fishers to place themselves out of the way of through traffic. Going from ~14m to, IIRC, a proposed width of 8m was a huge reduction in usable space. This looks like a great way to keep everyone safe without having to build out the full width for the entire length.
Was at the consultation this evening. They had a large map covering roughly the areas from One Tree Hill south to Mangere East, and were taking suggestions from people about local transport issues and writing them on stickers (pre-printed with car/truck/cycle etc graphics) to stick on the area concerned. Thought it was a neat way of visually representing a range of local transport issues, and it allowed me to get a couple of cycling bugbears off my chest.
I noted that plenty (about half) of the stickers represented PT or active modes, but predictably many talked about truck congestion etc. which was the focus of the NZTA’s own posters etc. (and sorry Patrick R, but nothing about place making from the NZTA or commenters, only about directly transport points). Only problem with this of course is that pointing out truck congestion in a certain area is likely to be twisted into ‘needing’ a major project by our friends at the NZTA…
The guy there said that the main emphases in the area at the moment were bus access from Mangere to Sylvia Park (making the most of the frequent routes in the New Network – I simply said bus lanes or don’t bother), and the east-west link. I asked what the current plan was for the east-west link given that the previous plan was beaten back, and he said that it was at a stage of taking consultation and working on ideas, and that they would have a new proposal out later this year. To be fair, the staffers on the booth were very nice and sincere in listening.
However…given their track record, I have my doubts about if the NZTA will change its mind given this Government’s priorities. Stand by for another fight later this year.