No cycleway for new road

Efforts to convince authorities to build a cycleway and walkway as part of the new highway between Manawatu¯ and Hawke’s Bay have failed.

The New Zealand Transport Agency confirmed yesterday it would not build a route away from the new highway for walkers and cyclists. The new highway replaces State Highway 3 through the Manawatu¯ Gorge, between Palmerston North and Woodville, which closed in April 2017 due to two large slips blocking the road.

Initial designs for the new road came out with no separated cycling or walking lanes.

Instead, there was a half-lanewide strip on each side of the fourlane highway. That pushed cycling advocates into forming Build the Path, a lobby group with the goal of getting a cycleway and walkway.

The agency announced in January it would talk to councils and Build the Path about a cycleway, with agency portfolio manager Sarah Downs saying officials were working through ‘‘the best possible options’’.

But Build the Path spokeswoman Rachel Keedwell, who also sits on Horizons Regional Council and its regional transport committee, said the agency had done ‘‘a complete about-face’’.

In a meeting with Build the Path, the agency had a Powerpoint presentation that included a slide that effectively said a cycleway was a good idea, but out of scope, she said. The agency had collected advice from a cycling expert, who said a separated cycleway and walkway would be well used if it was of good quality, she said.

‘‘They entered with a predetermined point of view. I think their ‘out of scope’ is code for ‘we don’t have the budget’.’’

Not considering cycling and walking facilities was out of line with the Government policy statement on land transport, released in 2018, she said.

Downs said yesterday the agency looked at putting in a separate walking and cycling path, but decided it could not be done without going through a business-case process.

The agency was ‘‘seeking to investigate’’ a path, but if it went ahead it would not be ready for consideration in time for hearings on the highway, due to take place in March.

Plans were afoot to add walking and cycling facilities to the bridge across the Manawatu¯ River between Ashhurst and the gorge, she said.