Delay for Rocks Rd waterfront pathway
Increased traffic and sea level rise are among the reasons a cycling and walking facility along Rocks Rd in Nelson will no longer be fast tracked, says the NZ Transport Agency.
In December, a short to medium term solution for a shared cycle path and walkway along State Highway 6 had been considered as an accelerated part of the Nelson Future Access project.
But NZTA said more time was needed to ensure the transport system was prepared for the challenges of moving more people and freight in the future, and climate change. It found the risks of proceeding ahead of the wider transport investigation were too great.
NZTA director regional relationships Jim Harland said investigations of the Rocks Rd corridor found the relationship between the sea-wall, resilience, increasing occurrence of storm surges, and sea level rise due to climate change was more complex than previously thought.
‘‘We need to ensure that what is proposed and constructed on Rocks Rd to benefit pedestrians and cyclists will work in an integrated way with the rest of the transport system.
‘‘Any solution needs to be long-lasting and robust, particularly given the damage we saw in early 2018 with the ex-cyclone storm surges.’’
At the Regional Transport Committee meeting on Monday, Councillor Matt Lawrey asked Rhys Palmer and Coral Aldridge of NZTA why they did not know about the state of the seawall holding up the highway before they decided to fast track the business case in December.
Palmer said when it scoped the project with council, it did not have the latest information about the seawall. ‘‘In hindsight we should have looked at that those reports and had that inform our programme and not been, I guess, as bullish as we were in terms of endeavouring to undertake Rocks Rd much faster.’’
Alridge said NZTA wanted to be sure the option it put forward was able to be consented and funded. ‘‘No matter what option we recommend we’re going to be in a very difficult consenting environment.’’
Last year, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter said the Southern Link ‘‘doesn’t deliver on any of the new Government’s objectives for transport’’.
The Rocks Rd walking and cycling investigation will now be aligned with the wider transport network study between Stoke and central Nelson.
The finished investigation is scheduled to be brought to Nelson City Council next August and the Transport Agency Board in September 2020.