Major redesign of Auckland's Queen Street revealed

Friday, 3 September 2021

An artist’s impression of Queen Street prior to the final design, looking north towards Wyndham Street.

A major redesign of Auckland’s Queen Street has been revealed, but critics are already pointing out its lack of separated bicycle infrastructure.

Auckland Council has released details of its Wai Horotiu Queen Street Project, dubbed as delivering “one cohesive design” following Aucklanders’ feedback.

It features significantly widened footpaths – up to seven metres in some places – from Customs Street to Mayoral Drive. This would give pedestrians more space and move Queen Street closer to the council’s City Centre Masterplan vision of fully pedestrianising the area, council said.

“[This will] provide a shared area for those moving quickly on foot, or slowly by micro-mobility and bike, next to the road.”

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But editor of Greater Auckland, Matt Lowrie, said council had focused too much on the urban design of the area, not on its “actual usability.”

“The design needs to be more of a separated cycleway, as opposed to looking like a big extension of the footpath.”

A council spokeswoman said the artist’s impression was “a basic spatial representation” and not a detailed proposal.

“Work is still being undertaken to define the shared area appropriately and ensure safety for all users on the basis of a ‘slow speed’ cycle/scooter path which preserves safe pedestrian movement along Queen Street,” she said.

Auckland’s Queens Street under Covid Level 4 lockdown.

Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick said she was glad to see more space for people, but was a “bit gutted” at the lack of separated cycling and scooter lanes shown.

“That's something which, as we come to the point of public consultation, we'll be mobilising people within the city centre to submit on,” she said.

Private cars would also be stopped from travelling the length of Queen Street by introducing an essential vehicles' area between Wellesley and Wakefield Streets. Buses, bikes, motorcycles, goods vehicles and emergency services would still be able to use the area as normal.

The project had originally been planned in a number of different parts, each with its own independent consultation phase. It was vehemently fought by a group of commercial landlords and retailers, who argued the redesigns would damage commerce in an already struggling strip.

Lowrie said the decision to consolidate the project into one master design was a good decision.

“We would have had death by consultation, everyone would have been fatigued from having to have the same feedback every single time and having to fight the same battles.

“Having one consultation where all the issues are worked out and they just deliver it is a far better outcome for everyone and that's what it should have been all along,” he said.

Swarbrick said “anger and frustration” was rising around the previous consultation process.

“Residents who were feeling as though this plan that they had signed off on […] was being pulled apart and consulted on a piecemeal basis,” she said.

Auckland Council director of infrastructure and environmental services Barry Potter said the project would “re-balance space on Queen Street in favour of people.”

“Aucklanders asked us to deliver the balance of the project in a single, unified design, and that’s the solution we are announcing today.

“We will be constructing in a way that doesn’t dig up the road and allows us to change and remove materials and re-purpose them for future works,” Potter said.

Aucklanders would be able to give feedback once consultation was launched later this month, with work expected to start by the end of 2021 and to be completed by September the next year.