City eyes early start on cycleway

Richard Barter, pictured on rocks taken from Mt Roskill, is keen for the pathway to be built along its northern slope. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Auckland City is investigating whether a cycling and walking path on Mt Roskill can be built before costly landscaping to soften its effect on the volcanic cone is done.

Although the city council approved up to $1.68 million for the project in November, a staff warning of cost rises has raised last-minute uncertainty about the final link in a 4.5km pathway built beside the rest of the $201 million Roskill motorway extension, which opens in a fortnight.

The Transport Agency has also built pedestrian and cycling bridges over the motorway at its western end and between Keith Hay Park and a cluster of schools including Mt Roskill Grammar.

But Mt Roskill Community Board chairman Richard Barter says that without a pathway along the northern slope of the volcanic cone, local students will be deprived of a clear run between the bridges.

"We need to complete this path so the kids can walk and cycle safely to school and residents can enjoy recreational opportunities," he said after meeting the city's transport committee on the site yesterday.

Mr Barter asked the committee to consider building the pathway first, using Transport Agency contractors before they took their machinery from the motorway, then complete the landscaping within the remaining term of a five-year resource consent.

He also suggested it try to reduce the overall cost by persuading the agency to replace public toilets it demolished to make way for the motorway's Dominion Rd interchange.

His board might provide barbecue facilities from its own budget.

Transport committee chairman Ken Baguley said the suggestion seemed to make sense, although he remained concerned that by proceeding with the pathway "we'll be sending a signal that we agree with the specifications for the total project".

Mr Baguley believed these were excessive, and that about $400,000 to be spent on the pathway was being eclipsed by about $1.6 million for a "makeover" of the volcanic slope.

"The local people saw it as an opportunity to give Mt Roskill a makeover, which is fair enough too, because the [motorway] has been cut through the side of the mountain and things have gone [from it]," he said.

He had asked officers to consider completing the project in two phases, and also to contact the Transport Agency about replacing the toilets.

Council acting transport strategy group manager Brian Tomlinson did not have a detailed breakdown of his $2 million estimate for the project but said the landscaping was projected to cost between $250,000 and $300,000.

Double that amount was budgeted for palisade fencing and stone walls using rock from the road project.

About 200 cubic metres of basalt boulders had been left under the mountain for that purpose, and Mr Baguley said he was "quite sure they will get amalgamated somewhere".

An initial plan for a 2m-to-3m-wide cycleway behind a steep retaining wall above the motorway was opposed by several organisations including the Auckland Regional Council, the Conservation Department and the Volcanic Cones Society, prompting a redesign in 2006 in conjunction with Ngati Whatua.

Neither the volcanic society nor Ngati Whatua could be reached to indicate whether a two-stage project would be acceptable within a resource consent granted in November.

Mr Barter said he hoped a palisade fence seen as integral to the project could be built at the same time as the pathway.

But it might be possible to persuade the various stakeholders involved to accept a delay in building the stone walls running perpendicular to the pathway.

He remained keen for the entire project to be completed as planned, but accepted that some some minor modifications might be necessary.