A $7 million cycleway, including a new $900,000 bridge spanning the Water of Leith, got almost unanimous approval from the Dunedin City Council yesterday.
The vote came after staff assured councillors the sort of problems that arose during the botched South Dunedin cycleway construction would not happen again.
The Dunedin urban cycleways project will include the construction of a cycleway from the Dunedin Railway Station to the new bridge near the mouth of the Leith, connecting the city to the NZ Transport Agency's West Harbour cycle/walkway.
There will also be new cycling infrastructure on Duke, Howe, Dundas, Albany and Hanover Sts, and a harbourside link along Fryatt, Birch and Kitchener Sts to Portsmouth Dr.
The decision came despite a passionate submission from Visual Impairment Charitable Trust Aotearoa NZ trustee Lynley Hood, who said a plan for cyclists and walkers to share paths would create ``dangerous and unpleasant places for elderly and disabled pedestrians''.
It was also strongly opposed by Cr Lee Vandervis, who said the council should be concentrating on paying back debt, not spending on cycleways.
But Cr Vandervis was a lone voice at the infrastructure services and networks committee meeting yesterday, the only one of 12 councillors to vote against the plan.
The plan initially attracted an angry reaction from businesses around the railway station, after an earlier design heralded the loss of car parks in Anzac Ave.
A plan to remove 19 car parks there was changed, and the parks would be retained.
Council transport group manager Richard Saunders said after a meeting with Albany St businesses yesterday more changes to parking may be made.
At the meeting he was asked by Cr Mike Lord if the project could be done in a way avoiding making ``us look like a pack of idiots in the paper again''.
Mr Saunders said he could not assure him everybody would be happy with the plan, but he could assure him the proposal was best practice to ensure good cycling infrastructure.
He said construction had to be completed by June 2018 to ensure NZTA funding, although the agency had indicated if completion was after that date, funding could still be received.
Mayor Dave Cull moved the committee approve the project.
He was confident Dr Hood's concerns would be addressed as the design developed.
Cr Jim O'Malley said he would support the motion, but asked staff to make sure the paths would be safe.
Cr Christine Garey said the opportunities from connecting the cycleway around the harbour would be ``immense''.
Staff will lodge a business case with the NZTA, which is expected to meet two-thirds of the cost.
Related Stories
Comments
A great swathe of Dunedin doesn't have clean water today. But the most important thing they can do is waste another $7 million of bike tracks.
Can we please have a list of the top 5 council staff who will resign when this project goes more then 5% over budget? Promises to stop the continual mismanagement are only of value when someone stands up to accept responsibility. I am pretty sure all the councilors who voted for this won't resign when the budget is blown. So staff will have to do.
And a last note to Ms Garey, unless you really want to built a bridge from Aramoana to the Peninsula, there won't be a path linking around the harbour. Any ferry service would go broke in a week.