Cambridge bridge options narrowed down to four

Thursday, 4 June 2026

The four options include constructing an additional bridge in the mid-west of Cambridge, a new bridge in town, adding additional bridge capacity at another location, and increasing capacity on existing bridges.

Waipā District Council has narrowed down the potential location for a new bridge in Cambridge, marking another step forward in addressing the town’s traffic troubles.

It’s the latest chapter in the effort to solve ongoing congestion woes, with a community brainstorm resulting in hundreds of residents pitching more than 1000 transport options.

Councillors unanimously voted to further investigate four river crossing options at Wednesday’s Strategic Policy and Planning committee.

The options moving to the next stage of consideration include constructing an additional bridge in the mid-west of Cambridge, a new bridge in town, adding additional bridge capacity at another location, and increasing capacity on existing bridges.

The committee considered feedback from transport plan workshops with elected members, Cambridge Community Board and the Cambridge Connections Community Reference Group.

The east and far west options earlier proposed will not progress after elected members indicated they did not see them as fit for purpose.

Deputy Mayor Jo Davies-Colley told councillors she thought they were striking the right balance between getting on with making decisions and keeping the community informed (file photo).

Councillor and committee chair, Mike Montgomerie, said he’d observed a “low level of support” for both options, with neither option satisfactorily resolving the problems the council was looking to address.

Deputy mayor Jo Davies-Colley added it was important for the council to begin narrowing down options and for potential bridge locations to reflect data and modelling, not individual’s opinions or preferences.

“I'm really reassured that the community reference group and the community board have also given us that feedback.”

Councillor Mike Montgomerie is the chair of the Strategic Policy and Planning committee (file photo).

Discarding the option to duplicate the Shakespeare St bridge was also discussed, with Montgomery suggesting it would not adequately solve congestion issues.

However, elected members stopped short of scrapping the idea completely, with councillor Claire St Pierre saying she wasn’t comfortable taking the option off the table yet.

“I'm conscious of the infrastructure hierarchy that says make best use of your existing infrastructure…I still feel that we've got to demonstrate that if we're going to work towards that hierarchy, we've got to show that we are open to that.'

But Community Reference Group member Peter Carr told elected members the option did nothing to address congestion made up of drivers heading to Hamilton or the excess of heavy trucks along Pope Tcc.

Prior to voting, Davies-Colley said she was “really happy” with how Cambridge Connections was progressing and being communicated to residents.

“One of the things I’ve heard consistently is that people in the community really want us to get on with this project, but they also really want to understand what [and] why the decisions are being made and how they’re being made, and I think this approach strikes a pretty good balance with that.”

Mayor Mike Pettit told councillors he was “really happy with the job you’ve done here”.

Councillors also directed staff to continue investigating other non-bridge options to ease congestion and to not exclude a parking building in Cambridge as a long-term possibility.

However he warned there was “no calm season ahead”, emphasising that the choices they made would have financial implications.

“Put your big girls’ and boys’ pants on because you’ve got some big decisions to make.”

Councillors Aidhean Camson, Pip Kempthorne, and Roger Gordon declared a conflict of interest because they lived in areas affected by a new crossing so they abstained from discussions and voting. All other elected members voted to approve the four bridge crossing options.

The options will next be measured against the council’s agreed transport assessment criteria, undergo traffic modelling, and be refined over the next four months to identify a bridge corridor.

Approved options will progress to a multi criteria analysis using the agreed transport assessment criteria, have traffic modelling completed and refined over the next four months to identify a bridge corridor in the draft transport plan.

The draft plan will be approved for public consultation later this year at the council’s Strategic Planning and Policy Committee meeting on October 7.

Councillors also directed staff to continue investigating other non-bridge options to ease congestion and to not exclude a parking building in Cambridge as a long-term possibility.