Bus hub work to start soon
Transport: ‘Final piece of puzzle’
A $4.4 MILLION bus hub, timetable app and ticketing changes are all arriving as the final pieces of Dunedin’s public transport ‘‘puzzle’’ are put in place.
The Otago Regional Council yesterday announced the cost of the longawaited bus hub and a predicted completion date of November.
Fulton Hogan has been contracted for the works, which are planned to begin on July 16.
The centre of the city’s bus network will be in Great King St between Moray Pl and St Andrew St.
The proposal includes 10 bus bays, electronic timetables showing bus times, public toilets, and a cafe kiosk.
The final design features continuous shelters, except where there was shelter already or outside Community House to preserve its ‘‘heritage values’’.
The hub has been delayed for more than a year since it was first announced.
Colourful patterns on the footpaths have been scrapped since the initial design, but the council said it would pursue commissioning street art in the area as several tenants on the street indicated they had walls on which it could be applied.
Regional council deputy chairwoman Gretchen Robertson said it recognised it was a
short timeframe between the announcement of the timeline and the start of the project.
It had to balance the need to give notice with wanting to be finished before the December Christmas trading period, she said.
‘‘We’re hoping this is going to be a really vibrant, busy spot.’’
It reached the $4.4 millioncost after a ‘‘competitive’’ tendering process, she said.
Regional councillor Trevor Kempton said there would be ‘‘significant disruption’’ during the construction period, although the contractor would try to minimise this.
Works would be ‘‘round the clock’’, with the highest impact construction scheduled between 6.30pm and 6am.
At least one road would remain open during daytime hours and pedestrian access would be maintained.
Council corporate services director Nick Donnelly said other bus changes would occur in parallel.
This would include ‘‘tagon tagoff’’ ticketing and online topups and balance checks.
An app would be released to allow for realtime information for passengers. As in Queenstown, the brand for the service would be renamed Orbus.
Regional council chief executive Sarah Gardner said the hub was the ‘‘final piece of the puzzle’’ after vast changes to Dunedin’s public transport network.
The hub would lead to ‘‘much more connected journeys’’ by bringing a more compact centre to the network, she said.
Council support services manager Gerard Collings said about 37 car parks would be lost, but there would ‘‘be a gain of available space through the removal of existing stops’’.
Some submitters asked for the footpath width to be increased from the original design.
Mr Collings said it could not be increased more as the council was constrained by the width of the road.
The thoroughfare through the Community House car park will be cut off and the only access to it will be through Moray Pl.