An early image of SkyPath before the transport agency scrubbed it. Photo / Supplied.
An early image of SkyPath before the transport agency scrubbed it. Photo / Supplied.
America's Cup technology could be the answer to a bike bridge across the Waitemata Harbour and cost a fraction of the Government's $685 million proposal, says a hi-tech entrepreneur.
Tim Smyth founded a company owned by American billionaire Larry Ellison which has built America's Cup boats in Warkworth.
The company,Core Builders Composites, also created the original design for the SkyPath cycleway across the harbour using advanced composite technology.
He said there is no reason the lightweight composite design for SkyPath could not be looked at again, saying he believed it would cost about $70m and have much lower maintenance costs.
Warkworth-based Core Builders has built boats for the America's Cup and did the original SkyPath design. Photo / File
Three weeks ago, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced the Government is going to fund and build a $685m new cycling and walking bridge alongside the existing harbour bridge - sparking accusations of caving in to a small group of privileged cyclists.
Since Labour came to power in 2017, the cost of a cycleway/walkway across the harbour has skyrocketed from $67m to $240m to $685m - a rise of more than 900 per cent.
A poll commissioned by the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union shows 63 per cent of 992 respondents are strongly or somewhat opposed to the bridge, and just 18 per cent support it. The rest are neutral or unsure in the poll by Curia Market Research.
The NZ Transport Agency rejected the SkyPath composite design beneath the bridge's citybound clip-on and in 2019 announced plans for a new steel design attached to the Harbour Bridge.
This design was scrubbed after the transport agency, Waka Kotahi, told a parliamentary select committee in February this year that adding weight to the existing bridge would make it unsafe.
The 2019 plans for a steel cycling and walking structure attached to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Photo / Supplied
Smyth said he believed the transport agency canned the composite design out of fear for the unknown in an industry where steel and concrete engineers are the order of the day, and become more risk averse following last year's crash on the bridge that damaged a steel strut.
But he still firmly believes in the composite design, saying it was peer-reviewed and assessed as capable of handling the load, albeit with a small amount of reinforcing to the bridge.
Smyth said Core Builders Composites was going to digitally manufacture SkyPath in modules on the largest machine of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.
Waka Kotahi national infrastructure manager Andy Thackwray said the concept design created by the SkyPath Trust in 2015 used a prefabricated fibre reinforced polymer(FRP) structure.
He said the material has not been used on bridges in New Zealand to the degree proposed by SkyPath, saying it is more commonly used in boat building.
Concept drawing for the latest $685m walking and cycling adjacent to the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge. Photo / Supplied
"As such, several engineering and constructability complexities and uncertainties were identified with this option. In addition, the whole of life implications of this material are also unknown.
"As a result of these issues, using FRP material was discounted at the time and remains discounted because the original concerns remain," Thackwray said.
Transport Minister Michael Wood shares the agency's concerns around engineering and building complexities and uncertainties.
"A stand-alone structure is the safest option that will not only provide a walking and cycling option for commuters but creates an outstanding piece of tourism infrastructure," he said.
Sir Peter Maire, the businessman who developed Navman GPS navigation, said the cost of SkyPath blew out when engineers with zero experience in composites threw out the idea and converted the design to steel.
"What was a brilliantly simple composite cycleway turned into a 'steel elephant' that was too heavy and too expensive.
Sir Peter Maire, founder of Navman. Photo / Richard Robinson
"Kiwis are pretty good at this composite stuff and it's that ex-America's Cup design skill that allowed Rocket Lab to break into the space race," he said.
Bevan Woodward, the driving force behind SkyPath which goes back to 2004, said the original design could absolutely be built.
Last month, he wrote to Transport Minister Michael Wood saying the transport agency is not comfortable with a low-cost solution for walking and cycling on the harbour bridge because it does not fit its narrative of the "bridge is at capacity and can't be strengthened".
"After 17 years, it's time for an independent panel to review the situation," said Woodward.
