Subscribe to RSSHow It’s Looking: CBD Shared Spaces
The development of Shared Spaces in the Auckland CBD, where roads become very pedestrian friendly, are one of the best moves in recent years to acknowledge vehicles don’t have to rule in such key city spots - but it’s a little puzzling why building them takes so long.
A check of Fort St and Darby St developments today don’t, to the naked eye, feel a lot different to when photographed about 6 weeks ago.
The $2.3m Darby St development is due for completion “early this year.” but to be fair, now paving has just begun, it probably now can be finished fairly quickly. You can see what will look like when finished here.
Here is how it looked today:
And the first stage of the $23m Fort St project, covering Fort Street (between Queen Street and Commerce Street), Jean Batten Place, Fort Lane and lower Shortland Street will be completed by August. You can see how it will look when finished here
Here is how it looked today:
Other completion dates for Shared Spaces:
Kitchener Street South (June)
Elliot Street (Early 2012)
Lorne Street Stage 2 (May 2012)
O’Connell Street (End 2012)
Baldwin update with 10 days to go
Rossgrove Tce and Baldwin update
St George St, Papatoetoe rail bridge replacement
Purewa Eastern Line track work
12 Comments
Looking good. I hope those pavers can stand up to the traffic though, The ones on Te Wero Island are already cracked and broken.
The Fort St works don’t look as ready as they should because it was decided to take the opportunity to put in new drainage first, which is what is happening right now. Presumably they are also putting in new service ducts for Vector et al.
Christopher Dempsey
Member Waitemata Local Board.
Work on Lorne street outside the Library and Kicthener street outside the art gallery is starting this week also
@Christopher Thanks for that. It is going to be a great addition to the CBD landscape.
As I was walking pas the end of Fort street on Thursday at 5pm, I noticed 10 or so cars lined up in the one remaining lane (onto Queen Street). I was imagining a shared space in 6 months with an traffic jam all the way along it… hopefully people will start to get used to the idea that driving is no longer encouraged or expected in the CBD, and this wont eventuate
@Sam - I think people will avoid these streets because they’ll be slower to travel through and for many people they look like pedestrian only areas so motorists that aren’t aware that they can drive through will probably not. I do think that the slower speeds and removal of onstreet parking will make a HUGE difference, Darby street for instance will be a transformed area and space previously used for parking a car can now be used for outdoor dining etc. I think once Aucklanders start to see the great spaces these upgrades will create there will be a clamour for more shared spaces and for the fill pedestrianisation of others such as High Street etc.
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“but it’s a little puzzling why building them takes so long.”
I don’t think the building is taking long as such - they took a long time to start, which they publicly argued was due to planning first/needing to get a new design (for NZ circumstances) right from the first try. This included looking at long term maintenance and so on.
You also need some very high level of prep for temporary arrangements, or the shop owners and businessmen and lawyers are going to be all over you when you block access - complex working environment, to say the least.
Sam, there is a bit of that worry on Fort Street, because a lot of private car parks in the buildings will remain accessed via the shared space areas. But it will still be hugely better than before, even if Fort Street retains signficant car volumes.