No need to overdesign cycleway but a pressing one to complete it

The railway line between St Leonards and Roseneath and where a harbourside cycleway might go. Photo: Craig Baxter

Christmas comes and goes and there is still no sign of the completion of the cycleway to Port Chalmers. It appears to be no longer even on the wish list of the West Harbour Community Board and the Dunedin City Council makes no mention of it in its 10-year plan.

The NZ Transport Agency, which has promised to complete it, is deathly quiet, presumably in the hope it will all go away and it can get on with the job of making the roads safe for trucks.

The NZTA did have a plan, produced with great fanfare a few years ago. But it was costed at many times the budget and shelved. I don't know who the engineer was nor how much was allowed for the job, but questions about competence have to be asked. This is, after all, our money - and our non-existent cycleway.

It is a fact consultants will rarely, if ever, come up with the ``economy'' solution to a problem. There is an inbuilt desire to maximise the project, and a natural wish to cover themselves by overdesigning and overengineering.

There is no need for it to be anything like so expensive.

The original design required extensive reclamation and relaying rail tracks.

Those tracks are being relaid now, presumably without allowance for the cycle track, and would have to be relaid again.

Reclamation seems more expensive than bridges and boardwalks, which make a far prettier way as well as having much less impact on the harbour - its marine life and the tidal flow as well.

There are clever ways of building these things which don't have to be expensive. The military has Bailey bridges.

Every culture in the world has built clever, affordable structures to get over water. Is it beyond our ability to do likewise?

Roseneath is seen to be a major problem and the NZTA solution was clever - but expensive.

There are many answers.

No thought seems to have been given to the old rail tunnel. There is ample width in the existing one for a cycle track alongside the rail track.

Ross Davies' idea of a track round the outside of the peninsula remains extraordinary and there is a natural sandbar which takes you across the bay to the tip of the peninsula and would serve as the foundation of a bridge.

But the easiest and by far the cheapest is to come along the existing old track from the rail line to the road and then use District Rd and Reeves St; slightly more of a climb, but not insurmountable and nearly zero cost!

While sealing the cycleway costs, there are advantages in a gravelled track.

They are better for walking, speed differences between walkers and cyclists are reduced and they are far better in snow and, particularly, ice.

Aesthetically they are far, far, more appealing.

Lighting is also a luxury cost. Cycle lights are now absurdly bright and better by far to have an unlit track than no track.

I would reiterate my previous argument that the trucking industry and Port Otago between them have driven non-motorised traffic off the road to Port Chalmers and have a moral need to come to the party in terms of cost.

The traffic on State Highway 88 gets worse by the day - from container trucks and logging trucks to cruise-ship buses.

Yet, completing the cycleway doesn't have to be expensive. It is long overdue and it is time to get on with it and do it!

-Tony Williams is a West Harbour resident and was one of the founders of the Harbour Cycle Network which campaigned for the cycleway.