Auckland Transport are tweaking their proposals for removing level crossings in Takaanini.
Updated plans for four new bridges to replace level crossings in Takaanini aim to save money and minimise construction disruption.
The Takaanini bridges are the next phase of the Auckland Rail Level Crossing Programme, which helps unlock the full potential of City Rail Link by allowing more frequent trains while keeping traffic moving and improving safety.
The programme is making strong progress to replace level crossings with safer connections. A number of crossings have been closed and new pedestrian bridges at Takaanini, Te Mahia and Glen Innes stations to replace level crossings are due to be completed in mid-2026.
Auckland Transport is now asking for public feedback on new designs and construction of three new road bridges and a new walking and cycling bridge. When complete in the early 2030s they will enable further increases in train frequencies while keeping vehicles, bikes and pedestrians moving.
Proposed new plans focus on reducing cost and minimising construction impacts, while ensuring there are better connections and the new bridges better fit in the community
The proposals out for feedback include:
- New bridges built alongside Walters Road and Taka Street to minimise disruption
- Additional lanes on the new Manuia Road bridge and Great South Road to improve traffic flow
- Not building a proposed walking and cycling bridge on Spartan Road, an industrial area, to reduce costs.
Main construction of the new Manuia Road and Walters Road bridges will start in 2027, with further bridges built in stages to manage traffic and other construction impacts.
There’s a bit more information below.
Spartan Road
AT’s original plan here was to close the crossing for vehicles but to build a pedestrian and cycle bridge. As noted above, AT are recommending that the crossing just be closed completely with no bridge, and no future proofing for a bridge in the future.
Normally cutting a walking and cycling bridge would generate opposition from us but looking at the details, this probably makes sense. AT note that only a very small number of people are crossing the tracks here and the new Manuia Rd bridge is close by and in total, only about a 500m detour.
It would a much more useful for the conversation if AT provided the estimated cost of the options.
Also, just looking at the wider area, it seems like there’s a real opportunity to provide better connectivity to the industrial area from all of the housing just north of it with a small bridge over the Papakura Stream.
[Ed: this is an opportunity for accessibility that the local community has been highlighting since at least 2019]
Manuia Rd
AT are now proposing to make this a wider bridge with two lanes in each direction as well as adding additional lanes on Gt South Rd – more on that later. The bridge will have separated walking and cycling lanes, which is good but they’ve also added a new access road to access a handful of properties on the existing Manuia Rd. Could cutting the northern side of this loop and just having people use the roundabout go back over the bridge to access a small left in/left out lane be viable here?
Construction on the bridge is currently expected to start in the middle of next year.
Manuroa Rd
Manuroa Rd is to be closed as part of the level crossing work but a walking and cycling bridge is on the cards here. AT are looking at how that bridge is accessed – either by stairs and escalators or stairs and ramps.
Personally I think ramps are preferable over lifts and have as a bonus they lower ongoing costs.
AT say it’s future proofed for a connection to the station but it’s a shame they’re not delivering that upfront as that could help improve customer outcomes. Under both of these proposals, someone wanting to access the station might have to cross this bridge, then do that again to access the platform. A ramp down from the bridge to the platform would be desirable here.
Taka St
AT are now proposing changing the location of the bridge to be slightly north of the existing crossing. This is to allow them to build the bridge off-line and thereby keep the level crossing partially open during construction.
Due to the need to retain access to existing properties the design ends up with a bunch of additional roads either side of the bridge and they’re are looking at two options for how to access Cathay Lane on the eastern side. Option 3 looks the better option here.
Construction of the bridge is expected to start in 2028
Walters Rd
Lastly at Walters Rd AT is also looking to relocate the bridge to both make it easier to build off-line. In addition, the new design doesn’t have roads looping around to provide property access like at Manuia Rd and Taka St which frees up more land for future development – avoiding the case of wiping out some properties just to provide access to a few other properties.
Construction on the bridge is currently expected to start in the middle of next year.
Great South Rd
As well as the level crossings themselves, AT are also planning on making a number of changes to Great South Rd. As noted above, this will include additional lanes from the motorway to Manuroa Rd but a separate piece of work will see more lanes added as far south as Glenora Rd. At the very least they should be making these new lanes transit and/or freight lanes.
They’re adding the lanes by removing on-street parking and most concerningly, also removing existing (unprotected) cycle lanes. This is something the local councillors are happy about.
Manurewa-Papakura Ward Councillor Daniel Newman and Councillor Matt Winiata are supportive of these proposed changes.
“We make no apology for pushing for the removal of the on-road cycle lanes. The existing lanes are both unsafe and it contributes to traffic-slowing bottlenecks.
The cycle lanes are going to be replaced with shared paths which is never an ideal outcome but worse is those shared paths will only be delivered at a later stage.
Bizarrely they’re rushing to get the road lanes before the CRL but the shared paths and other pedestrian improvements, such as new and improved crossings, will only delivered at some point after the CRL opens.
Takanini needs these roading improvements to keep ahead of rail upgrades
AT’s Group Manager of Road Network Operations, Chris Martin, says more traffic lanes must go in before the City Rail Link (CRL) opens, which will bring more trains and shorter journey times.
“This project will give Great South Road more room to keep traffic moving as there’s more frequent trains.
Remember there are now no additional train services on day one anymore.
It’s telling that the feedback period for this was only open for 2 weeks and has already closed.
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Agree on Spartan Road. who in their right mind would want to cycle through that motorway junction area ?. Bad enough driving through it. It would make sense as part of a seperated cycle/walk way linking all areas currently cut off by the motorway / great south road mess.
“This project will give Great South Road more room to keep traffic moving as there’s more frequent trains” are the trains running on Great South Road? I don’t really get what they mean by this.
Great South road and the community it serves will remain car dependent until they sack their local boards.
Kids safely and independently riding and walking to school is for other regions of Auckland, leaving this arterial as 4 lanes of car congestion.
That if I recall, was the only local board to refuse central government funding for cycleways.
The following is one of the later rejections
https://m.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2405/S00102/unexpected-halt-manurewa-local-board-scraps-cycle-lane-upgrades-a-real-blow-to-the-community.htm
Surely the real value of the Central Rail Link is its potential to lessen use of our roads? If it is quick enough to train from Takanini to Downtown, why would any sensibly thoughtful person want to drive?
Those of us who catch trains through Remuera to Penrose are constantly amazed at how many people prefer to be in cars, rather than the modern comfort of our trains.
Surely improving access to Takanini Train Station must be the priority here.
Take Otahuhu station for example, built in the style of New Lynn with an excellent bus station integrated, it proves that South Auckland can have what the North Shore cannot…excellent train stations that encourage people to catch the train.
Auckland Transport must be focussed on this, we are living in a time when the government in Wellington is saying we have run out of money, and Auckland continues to burn billions in traffic congestion, while simultaneously hastening the burning of the entire world.
It is Auckland Transport’s duty to save us from the air that is killing us when we walk along the roadside, save our children from being run over by the increasingly car dominated parenting market, and most importantly take advantage of this unique opportunity of a shiny new infrastructure project that we have been waiting for forever!
Get us out of our damn cars please
bah humbug
Make a lane on each Motorway in each direction a Bus Lane.
That would make Public Transport more attractive.
Imagine the Trucking Industry uproar!
That’s very low land around there, and very close to the harbour. An underpass there would be very prone to flooding.
Wondering whether AT considered a culvert underpass for Spartan Rd, or are they more expensive than a bridge
Or just close the road and leave the at grade crossing as is. It’s lightly used and there is already a gate there that closes when a train arrives. It’s just the SC line, freight and Te Huia using this part of the network post CRL, same as today, so perhaps one extra train her hour during off-peak and a couple more during peak. This brings back the broader question of why are we jumping to close all these level crossings…are we in effect smashing a peanut with a sledge hammer?
Train drivers talk about collisions as ‘not a matter of if but when’. Personally I support grade separating level crossings, especially in cities
They’d never be able to run faster/more frequent trains if there’s even the possibility of an at-grade conflict.
There’d also be flooding concerns I imagine.
A new rail station needs to be built at Walters Road in conjunction with the grade separation project. There is quite a distance between Takanini and Papakura stations. A new station here midway between the two would be right next to the Southgate and Takanini Village shopping centres, which is the main retain centre in this area now, as well as being strategically well-located with a massive potential walk-up catchment with all the residential development along the full length of Walters Road. Bruce Pullman Park playing fields and Papakura Normal School are also close by.
Absolutely agree with this. This station should have been built years ago.
It probably makes more sense than Takanini station itself.
If the whole point is “keeping vehicles, bikes and pedestrians moving” why close any crossings?
Why not improve some and leave the rest to avoid creating new community bottlenecks?
To make the trains run faster and more frequently.
There used to be one there – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tironui_railway_station
There’s still a “Tironui Station Rd” in the area to show where it was
Oh wow, so why are more general traffic lanes bring added to Gt South Rd prior to safe cycling or bus priority, just when a new PT project is about to open…to induce more people to drive to the station? Surely this isn’t the sort of shift we want to be encouraging. Can’t just blame the local board here…in the new governance structure arterial roads are strategic corridors and will still be controlled by AC. Bus lanes and safe cycling (where they don’t exist) on GSR are absolutely the priority here ahead of gen traffic lanes…build the separated path first then change the kerbside space to a transit or bus lane. Duty of care is again being breached by once again acting against best practice and strategic frameworks…hope things change soon.
That team calls itself optimisation but it is really the old Auckland City Council traffic Engineering Team. The GM spent his career trying to optimise intersections by getting more traffic through them. He reached GM level and was disestablished but like all the old Auckland City Council guard he keeps popping back up doing his ‘one more lane will solve congestion thing’, it’s now sometimes dressed up with part-time bus lanes but they never take away traffic capacity. Some LBs lap it up because they get fooled by the old traffic engineering lie that you can build your way out of congestion.
Their north indicators on all the maps seems wrong except for Spartan Rd. Some good changes though. The shopping Ctr could expand down a bit by the looks.
Shared paths put off sounds like won’t happen type thing though.
missed opportunity to construct a Walters Rd station (or at least do enabling works) during the overpass construction
Sadly, that opportunity was missed a long time ago when the shopping centre was designed for it, next to Walters Road but the station relocation didn’t get funding. Now the land either side of the rail corridor has been redeveloped and space for 4 track needs to be kept. Investment in the existing station means relocation becomes less economically viable. Will ATRC be able to guide a 30 plan to avoid this kind of missed opportunity?
Papakura DC killed that option. I had always thought it was ARTA or one of the Regional bodies but it was actually PDC despite being supportive (until they weren’t).
At Tironui Rd the rail corridor is 30m wide and it looks as though the council reserves were once part of it. Suspect Richard Prebble sold off the land for those flats. The walk-up population now is many times what it was when AT did a survey about a decade ago on whether to rebuild a station. A station on Walters Rd would have a bigger catchment than many of the existing stations.
Is that the same Richard Prebble who promised to keep the East Town workshops open and then turned around and closed them the following year?
@Niall McColl i believe some of the issue was that the Papakura DC wanted the station to be north of Walters Rd, at Glenora Rd (about equal latitude with the Takaanini community centre), while AT/KiwiRail wanted to restore the old Tironui Station site south of Walters Rd – and further from the Southgate shops and all the new housing
They are going to extra expense to keep the roads open during the builds. If the Manuia bridge was built first, it could handle east Takanini traffic heading north, while the other two crossings are built. There are 4 existing crossings to the south. The inconvenience of a closed road mostly affects local traffic. How much inconvenience would we endure for a cost saving?
The footpath between the shopping centres on Walters Rd is busy by suburban standards. These two centres serve significant walk-up catchments. One of the best 20 min city examples in Auckland. The design for the Walters Rd crossing appears to add to the walking distance between these shops.
Go buy some vegetables at Southgate them walk to Bin Inn at Takanini Village is about double the distance. Is this the sort of result we want from these designs?
Sadly I can see the why the local board and (some, not all) locals will be pushing for the general traffic expansion.
Council and AT have had so many plans done in the past for transit lanes and safer cycling in this area, but never committed funding, and never really attempted to get local boards onside with them. The end result has been do nothing, while residential expansion has occurred over the last 10-20 odd years. This has all been car based growth and car based infill density.
Yes removing the on-road cycle lanes isn’t ideal – but at least make those kerb side lanes transit – NOT general traffic – The 33 bus is terrible for reliability in peak times.
Sadly Great South Road never got a transport make over prior to it being absolutely flooded with traffic, and the model will say you can’t take away any lanes, you must add more. Therefore add more traffic.
Something has to be done to reinstate the Tironui (Walters Road) station. They have managed to squeeze three new stations into Drury, yet there is nothing but excuses as to why there is no station for the 3 kilometre stretch between Papakura and Takanini, despite it being one of the mostly densely populated areas in New Zealand, with more subdivisions being approved.
I’ve cycled Gth Sth Rd through this area a few times in recent years. It’s fairly flat but beyond that the traffic isnt welcoming to bikes. I feel more lanes are just going to create a bigger carpark. T3 might be worthwhile, but still worse for bikes than today.
I’ve also been across at least a couple of the level crossings, mostly flat too but big gaps around the rails and rough. I’d love to stay cycling at grade but elevating the rail is too expensive.
Per comment above, save money by building each bridge one by one and close the roads while doing it.
Why do we insist on building over when cycling and pedestrian underpasses would remove the need for lifts, suicides and safety around high voltage etc?