Skypath: the cycling community ‘destroyed’ Auckland Harbor Bridge will never have a bike path

Cycling enthusiasts are “gutted”, the current design of the Skypath appears to have been scrapped and they are calling for a bike lane on the Auckland Harbor Bridge.

The Herald today revealed that plans to build a bike and pedestrian path over the bridge have run into “major and complex engineering problems.”

The issue is understood to be related to the ability of the piers to support the additional load and a replacement plan was expected to be announced soon.

“We are devastated. Waka Kotahi cannot build his version of Skypath and we are back on the drawing board. It means years of delays to cross the harbor with bikes,” wrote advocacy group Bike Auckland on its Facebook page.

They said the apartments were sprouting up on the main North Shore roads and that Esmonde Rd had a large one on the way that relied on biking and public transportation.

“Ferries can’t cope with peak-hour demand for bicycles. Auckland is on a roll and transport agencies need to step up.”

Greater Auckland Director Matt Lowrie told Newstalk ZB that it was worrying and disappointing that delays were continuing to occur.

“The Skypath is sorely needed. It was needed years ago and we have to go ahead and find a way to build it,” Lowrie said.

He said that the public needed to be updated on the project and that if there were challenges then they should be made public so that a proper discussion could take place.

“We will be watching very closely to see what happens next.”

He said that Skypath was going to be one of those projects that, once built, people would wonder why we didn’t do it years ago.

“We just have to keep going.”

The bridge track was part of the $ 360 million Northern Route, an ambitious plan revealed in May 2019 by Waka Kotahi, the New Zealand Transportation Agency.

Of the total cost, $ 240 million is for the bridge and $ 120 million to extend the road to the Akoranga bus station near Northcote.

At the time, Waka Kotahi’s general manager for systems design and delivery, Brett Gliddon, said the plans were complete and that he expected construction to begin next year, 2020.

Waka Kotahi’s own polls suggest there is 78 percent support for a path to bike and walk over the bridge.

An earlier plan, promoted by a private group, the Skypath Trust, involved hanging a structure from the trimmed outer lanes on the east side of the bridge. He was spoiled in 2016. But the “clips” are not designed to carry that extra weight and Waka Kotahi rejected the plan.

Instead, his 2019 proposal has the cantilevered structure of the concrete piers that support the entire bridge. But that is now also in doubt.

No one in Waka Kotahi would confirm that the current plan is about to be scrapped. Neither would Transport Minister Michael Wood. But the signs are clear.

Waka Kotahi regional relations director Steve Mutton informed Bike Auckland that the Northern Pathway plan had “technical problems with the way the route is supported”, stating that the problem was at the docks.

Last month, Gliddon, now the general manager of transportation services for Waka Kotahi, told the parliamentary select committee that it was no longer possible to strengthen the bridge.

“We believe that we have strengthened it as much as we could and we cannot add more steel … it is counterproductive.”