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After years of lobbying by residents, retailers and local board members, the long-awaited pathway and footbridge linking Wellsford’s Rodney Street and Centennial Park Road opened for use last Friday morning, December 6.
The crew from contractor Wharehine Construction, based just across the road from the new bridge, took down the barriers and gave the site a final tidy up almost 10 months after the combined build started.
Project manager Sam Downing said the bridge itself had been finished for a while, but a late change to the northern approach to replace a sharp turn with a smoother curve had delayed the opening.
Around 20 people from Wharehine worked on the project, which was largely funded by Rodney Local Board’s transport targeted rate, plus a contribution from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA).
Downing said the biggest challenge had been bringing in and installing the 76-tonne concrete beam from Tauranga to the bridge site in June, an operation that required two cranes and an overnight road closure.
The new path means people can now walk easily from Wellsford town centre to businesses, a preschool and Centennial Park without having to cross busy State Highway 1 to go over the railway.
The eastern footpath previously stopped at the driveway of 68 Rodney Street, meaning that anyone wanting to get to Centennial Park Road on foot had to cross State Highway 1, negotiate both Davies Road entrances and the railway bridge, then cross SH1 again.
Rodney Local Board first committed funding from its transport targeted rate to the project four years ago, but it was subject to repeated delays, first by the need to negotiate with NZTA, as the path runs along SH1, and with KiwiRail, which is responsible for the railway line the bridge crosses, but also over funding, design changes and site access.
The delays also led to the budget for the path blowing out from $1.4 million in 2021 to $4.1 million when the project started.
Downing said while the build period had almost doubled from the initial four month estimate, they had come in under budget – Auckland Transport said in October the final cost was expected to be $3.9 million.
As well as laying the new concrete path and installing the footbridge and handrails, Wharehine has planted around 17 specimen trees along the route and on the bridge approaches.
First across the new footbridge when it opened last week was Rodney Local Board member Colin Smith, whose long-running campaign to get it built included wielding a chainsaw to clear vegetation in 2019 in a bid to create a path alongside the railway line.
He said last week it was great to see the path finally in place and Wharehine had done a great job in getting a much-needed asset for the Wellsford community.
