War of words erupts over Auckland's controversial and unprecedented SkyPath plan

Friday, 24 August 2018

SkyPath would have a width of four metres, with an additional two metres added at six points, containing viewing platforms.

A war of words has erupted between the brains behind Auckland's controversial SkyPath proposal and one of its harshest critics.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) said it believed the SkyPath was unprecedented worldwide, despite the group behind it saying there were similar structures elsewhere.

The Government on Thursday confirmed its intention to fund SkyPath as part of a $390 million investment in walking and cycling projects nationwide, allocating $67m to the clip-on thoroughfare.

A detailed business case is due for completion by mid-2019. However, it is not clear when work would begin and end.

**READ MORE:

Skypath head, Bevan Woodward, does not believe safety issues will stall his proposal, which now has Government funding.

* Government to fund and build SkyPath, but cannot give completion date

* NZTA backs Auckland's SkyPath, despite questions of feasibility

* Government could fund Auckland's SkyPath, making it toll-free for residents

* Downer pulls out of SkyPath, drawn to more profitable projects**

Members of the Northcote Residents' Association (NRA) are long-time opponents of the proposal – in 2016, while claiming the project would be dangerously overcrowded, it posted a video arguing there could be 'human crushes' on the SkyPath.

On Friday, a former member of the NRA, Kevin Clarke, remained concerned about the possibility of panicked evacuations and speeding cyclists, particularly 'testosterone-laden lads', making SkyPath unsafe.

'The one [issue] that is insurmountable, I believe, is the eventuality of panicked evacuation,' Clarke said.

'That can be caused by many things, but in the event that people feel panicked and need to evacuate there is not adequate provision that's either made or is capable of being made for that.

'We've seen from … similar bridges that panicked evacuation has caused multiple deaths and this one would be a sitter for that.'

NRA chairman Ian Bogue said artists' impressions of the path showed a 'relaxed scene', but actual estimated daily users would 'not be spread nearly so thinly'.

NZTA needed to investigate whether adding additional weight to the clip-ons was safe, he said.

Bogue said the NRA were not opposed to the Skypath itself, but rather 'the prospect of streams of people with inadequate toilet and parking facilities in the very limited space under the bridge at the end of Princes Street'.

Clarke feared the pathway would also be too narrow – SkyPath Trust estimated up to 5000 people a day could use the route if it goes ahead.

According to the trust's website, the path would comprise a four metre-wide shared space with extra two-metre extensions for six observation decks along the route.

'Principally, because the pathway's continuously inclined for half a kilometre, so the natural temptation, particularly for testosterone-laden lads, is to go hell for leather and they have to pick and weave their way through the crowd coming at them and moving in the same direction as them,' Clarke said.

'That's almost certain to cause numerous serious accidents.'

But project director and trustee, Bevan Woodward, was confident safety issues would not stall SkyPath.

'I don't really know what [Clarke is] basing that on when you look at so many bridges around the world,' he said.

'Take any city in the world, any harbour city with a bridge across it, they all have walking and cycling access, so you look at Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge.

'They're actually narrower than SkyPath, so it's all pretty weird.'

Woodward accused Clarke of having 'weird ideas'.

'We have designed emergency evacuation at either end, which we've had designed by traffic engineers to ensure … that there would be no hold up in trying to get out,' he said.

'It's actually, I think, less of a risk than being for example in a stadium, where you could say if something bad happened in a stadium, how would you get the people out?

'People that do this stuff plan for it.'

Woodward said projects similar to SkyPath had been completed overseas.

'There's a bridge in Vancouver where they wanted to provide walking, cycling access and they clipped on a similar width, similar gradient, similar length,' he said.

'That's just one example that springs to mind – there are many examples where they have attached a walkway, cycleway onto the side.'

However, asked if the path had been replicated elsewhere, NZTA system design manager Kevin Reid did not think it had been.

'Not that we are currently aware of in terms of scale and being made primarily of fibre reinforced plastic, which forms the basis of the SkyPath Trusts' consented SkyPath structure concept,' he said.