Separated cycle lanes have been on the agenda for Dunedin's one-way system for years, and while they are likely to be built, there is still no guarantee. Here's why.
Dunedin's cycle network always needed a central trunk.
After considerable analysis it was decided the only viable route was on the city's one-way system.
That system is part of New Zealand's state highway network, and therefore the responsibility of the New Zealand Transport Agency.
That means the NZTA will pay for the work. It also means the work would be done to the NZTA's schedule - not the DCC's.
The NZTA spent this year developing a detailed business case. While that was initially expected in March, the project has ended up being more complex than first thought.
It is now expected in September.
From there it will head to Christchurch, where a business group from the Highways and Network Operations Southern office will analyse it.
Theoretically, that group could decline the business case.
If that happens, the business case could be reworked - or the project cancelled.
However, NZTA Dunedin's planning and investment acting regional manager Ian McCabe said, in principle, ''we would typically expect that if an activity has progressed to the detailed business case stage, it will have been sufficiently tested'' and ''that it is very unlikely not to be progressed through to construction''.
Therefore, he said, there was a ''reasonable expectation'' the project would proceed.
If there were issues with the business case, it was most likely the business case would be ''further revised until it is fit for purpose'', rather than being cancelled.
Car parking
Parking, or the potential loss of it, is considered the major flaw by many opposed or concerned about plans to add separated cycle lanes to Dunedin's one-way system. Here are the facts, as they stand.
• BUILDING a set of two separated cycle lanes along the one-way system from the Botanic Garden to Queens Gardens will swallow 391 car parks.
• The NZTA's current plan reinstates about 20 of those.
The reinstated car parks are five-minute parks outside businesses which depend on them.
• Where car parks are reinstated along the route, the cycle lanes need to be narrowed.
Too much narrowing and the cycle lanes will not work, the NZTA believes.
• The DCC believes more than 100 car parks can be added to surrounding streets, primarily through adding angled parking.
• The DCC believes there are between 160 and 180 car parks virtually never used in the area.
Plans are being developed to publicise those parking spaces.
• A multilevel car parking building could be built on the DCC's current Cumberland St-Frederick St car park.
This building would probably have businesses operating from its ground floor, and parking levels above that.
Its ultimate design would depend on ''district plan provisions and feasibility'', the DCC says.
• The NZTA is still looking at further car parks being reinstated along the cycle lanes, close to the Dunedin Hospital.
Those plans are not complete.
