Subscribe to RSSCycling Marathon Wants To Use Bridge
Cyclists may be able to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge for an Auckland Marathon-type event one Sunday morning in November of next year.
The cycling event is planned to run from the Wynyard Quarter at Westhaven to North Harbour Stadium at Albany. The bridge would be part of a controlled start with a designated “yellow zone” with riders staying in groups while crossing the bridge until they reach the Stafford Road exit on the Northern Motorway.
NZTA says it’s working with the organisers to explore the feasibility of using the bridge as part of the course for the event.
“We’ve asked the event organisers to provide us with information on the number of cyclists expected to take part, measures to ensure the safety of competitors and race marshals, and their traffic management proposals. If everything meets our strict event criteria we’ll be able to give it the go ahead,” says the NZTA’s State Highways Manager for Auckland, Tommy Parker.
Mr Parker says the event would have to be run on similar lines to the Auckland Marathon in order to minimise disruption for drivers who rely on the bridge. The event would be held on a Sunday morning when traffic volumes are traditionally light, the two lanes on the northbound box girders (the clip-ons) would be closed to traffic, and like the marathon, the lanes would need to be re-opened by mid-morning before traffic begins to build.
The day when cyclists crossed the bridge in protest in May 2009
Mr Parker says while the NZTA is helping event organisers with their application, the agency has to measure it – and any other request for an alternative use of a section of the bridge - against the bridge’s primary role as the most critical section of the country’s state highway network.
“Even with a partial closure of some lanes, the bridge remains a high speed motorway environment and requests for lane closures and alternative uses are granted sparingly, and only after very careful consideration.”
6 Comments
Maoris walked across illegally a few years ago.
Maori walk across it legally every year, along with anyone else doing the marathon that day!
The NZTA is right to be careful with the bridge. At the Hikoi Owen mentions above it was found that the clips on’s suffer from “Pedestrian lock in”. We were shown a video of it in an engineering lecture a couple of years ago. Its pretty safe to say transit will never let the clip on’s be crowded by pedestrians now they know how they behave dynamically under that loading case.
That said cyclists should be fine.
Yes Scott, I heard we nearly lost a clip-on when the march was going over the bridge.! Large columns of troops break step when crossing a bridge because of the forces marching causes.
The day of the illegal march apparently the sensors on the bridge set off an alarm and the person in charge that day was ex military and twigged what was happening, jumped into a control vehicle and tore up the bridge and yelled at them on a megaphone to break their step.
Richard. I understand the military break step is due to the risk of vertical excitation.
The Clip on’s suffer from lateral pedestrian lock in (well, at least the west one does). This is much more problematic as it does not require everyone to be matching at a rate that matches the resonant frequency of the bridge.
From the footage I saw or the bridge it was clear the protesters were not intentionally trying to march in time.
The London Millennium Bridge also suffered from the pedestrian induced vibration. Not good at all considering it is a foot bridge.
“The day of the illegal march apparently the sensors on the bridge set off an alarm and the person in charge that day was ex military and twigged what was happening, jumped into a control vehicle and tore up the bridge and yelled at them on a megaphone to break their step.”
Which one are you talking about? I don’t remember any such thing, but maybe because you are talking of a different march.
Also, the marathon works just fine - does it go over the main bridge section?