Adding cycleway to Manawatū Gorge replacement highway would 'over complicate' plans, officials say
Monday, 25 March 2019
Adding a dedicated walkway and cycleway beside the new Manawatū-Hawke's Bay highway would 'over complicate' plans, when the main focus is on fully-restoring a vital transport link as soon as possible, officials say.
The absence of a cycleway is the main point of contention among lobby groups and public submissions on the replacement for the Manawatū Gorge highway.
But New Zealand Transport Agency officials essentially ruled out the idea on the first day of a three-week long public hearing in Palmerston North.
'That proposal is a complex issue to work through… [to introduce it] now would be to over complicate this process and lead to delays,' agency legal counsel David Randall said
**READ MORE:
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* Plenty of public submissions on Manawatū Gorge replacement [route
](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109538248/plenty-of-public-submissions-on-manawat-gorge-replacement-route?rm=a)* MP pushes for cycleway addition to highway between Manawatū and Tararua
* Cycleway for Manawatū Gorge replacement highway pitched as win-win for cyclists and motorists
* Illogical and old-fashioned thinking about Manawatū Gorge replacement route not on**
Under the Resource Management Act, all additions to the plan would have to be fully assessed for environmental and cultural impacts.
While those assessments are largely complete for the proposed Manawatū-Hawkes Bay highway itself, they haven't even begun for a walkway and cycleway, Randall said.
Agency portfolio manager Sarah Downs said the proponents of the cycle and walk paths considered the construction of the replacement route to be a 'once in a lifetime opportunity.'
But the agency's priority was reconnecting the vital transport link of State Highway 3, which was severed by the Manawatū Gorge's indefinite closure in 2017. Delays and inefficiencies using the Saddle Rd or Pahīatua Track were costing the region's freight industry alone $22 million a year.
Downs argued there was nothing stopping a project to build the path in the future.
The agency would gladly join future planning discussions, she said.
In the meantime it planned to build a new walking and cycling facility on the Ashhurst Bridge, and connect it with the existing Ashhurst Domain and Manawatū River networks.
At the Woodville end there are plans to create another walking and cycling link to the Linauer Arts Trail.