Māpua on the road

After months of planning and weeks of construction, Māpua’s new improved Aranui Road is now being used by riders and walkers.

This is the first Waka Kotahi funded Streets for People pilot project to be fully completed in the Tasman District.

We officially opened the new shared paths, cycle lanes and raised crossings with help from the students of Māpua School last month.

An interesting side note is that our contractor, Downer, used more than 52 tonnes of recycled concrete aggregate as fill for the new footpath. This comes from stockpiled concrete from footpath replacements, kerb and channel and other jobs that have waste concrete which is then crushed and reused.

But we’re not stopping there. We will soon be moving into the next phase of the project to gather feedback on how the new layout works.

We’ll give people a few weeks to try out the new layout. Then we will publicise and make available a new survey to provide feedback.

We want to know how people now interact with the street, and whether they think the layout meets the goal of making it safer and more convenient for people who are not in motor vehicles to get around.

This feedback will be used to inform any tweaks to the layout.

Many people will have seen we have already made some early adjustments outside Foursquare and the bakery where planter boxes were removed to ease access for large delivery trucks and the disability park outside the Medical Centre is back.

Work Continues ... but why the planter boxes?

Phase two of the project is underway with installation of planter boxes and the construction of raised crossings.

The works have moved into the town centre to construct the two pedestrian crossings which will take about a week and a half.

Traffic in both directions will be maintained under stop/go management but there will be some car parking removed both sides of the playground and near the medical centre while the work is done.

Access to driveways will be maintained.

Additionally, from Friday 06 October, near the medical centre, one side Higgs Rd will be closed and both sides of Toru St will be closed. (See image below.) This is to allow the safe construction of the pedestrian crossing there. The closure will be in place for about a week.

The traffic management will be removed over weekends, similar to what was used further up the road.

All going well, within two or so weeks the entire project should be finished!

There have been some questions about the use of planter boxes.

They serve three purposes:

• On the roadside encourage slower vehicle speeds (improving safety) as it makes the road feel narrower.
• Protect sight lines at vehicle crossings and pedestrian crossings. Planter boxes are lower than a parked car, so this ensures drivers will always be able to see a safe distance up the footpath when turning into driveways.
• Add to the visual amenity on the road by adding some greenery.

These boxes are a temporary example of what could be put in place once a more permanent solution can be established and funded. For example, until funds are available for kerb buildouts and garden areas.

Thanks for your patience and understanding while we get this exciting safety project completed.

Māpua milestone marked

We’ve reached the exciting point where we’re ready to hit the road with the initial pilot Streets for People layout on Aranui Road.

The Streets for People programme is about flexibility and agility, although we are using concrete for some aspects of the work, nothing is set in stone. If there are features that don’t appear to be working as well as we’d like them to, we can change them.

There’s been a lot of work done so far by a dedicated group of people from the Māpua community who have weighed up the pros and cons of a variety of design options for improving the safety of the street for walking and cycling.

Some of the themes that came through are that Aranui Road needs slower vehicle speeds, safe places to cross the road, and reduced congestion on the footpaths while keeping car parking for businesses. All this must fit funding constraints, engineering requirements and the geometry of the existing road corridor.

Students from Māpua School are on board too and are working on special Māpua themed artwork to enhance the project area.

We’ve spoken to numerous community groups including the local volunteer fire brigade who raised a few points about the layout as it was first proposed. So, modifications have been made to consider their needs when responding to emergencies.

There are allowances in the project budget for making tweaks and building upon the initial pilot.

Once the layout has been down for a while, we’ll look for more feedback with surveys and pop-up events where people can share their thoughts.

All going well, the new safer Aranui Road should be ready by Spring.

All systems are go for pilot walking and cycling improvements along Aranui Road in Māpua.

Over the last six months, a dedicated group of community champions has worked alongside our Streets for People project team to nut out ideas and concepts for the best way to improve walking and cycling options throughout the village.

The government has provided funding for the project, and the proposed plans were approved by our Council Governance Group last month.

The project includes several new pedestrian crossings, new wide shared paths, a safe slow vehicle zone, community street art, new cycle stands and plantings to improve the streetscape.

But the key point of this project is that we are planning to use materials that can be repurposed. This means once the new layout is down, and we find it needs tweaking, we have the flexibility to do that simply and efficiently.

… And that’s when the wider community gets involved. We will be asking for your feedback and thoughts about the new Māpua Streets for People layout once it’s on the ground. We’ll then use that information to see where improvements could be made.

In the meantime, we are holding an information session at Java Hut on Wednesday 26 April from 8.30 am until 10.00 am. Join us for a coffee, see the plans on paper and have any questions answered.

Click the video link below for a look at what our Community Working Group and project team imagine what Aranui Road could look like in the pilot project.

Creating a safe, sustainable corridor on Māpua’s Aranui Road

Māpua is the ideal location to make the most of outdoor pursuits by foot or by bike.

Last year, Waka Kotahi granted us $840k to improve walking and cycling along Aranui Road, as part of the nationwide ‘Streets for People’ programme.

To make sure that we create a safe, sustainable road corridor, where attractive and inviting streets encourage an engaged vibrant community inclusive of everyone, we are keen to get our community involved.

Last November we posted a request on Facebook, inviting any interested members of the Māpua community to join our Streets for People working group.

The goal for the working group is to help produce an initial concept plan for Aranui Road upgrades, which will then be circulated to the wider community for feedback. In parallel, Māpua school has also been involved in some early feedback on how they’d like to see things shape up.

Recently, Māpua residents may have noticed posters going up around the village, inviting people to undertake our safety survey. We will use this to establish baseline data for the project on how people currently feel about using Aranui Road.

Once we’ve completed the project, a similar survey will be released. This will then supply a ‘before and after’ view from the community, to gauge the success of the improvement project.

We have a number of opportunities coming up for businesses and the wider community to join us, learn more about and refine the project throughout 2023 - all part of the road towards implementation.

How are we going to do this?

A community working group for this project has been established.

It includes representatives of schools, residents, active travel users and various transport agencies and community organisations and is tasked with setting the design framework before wider public input is sought.

The Streets for People project is like having a house built. The Council is effectively the architect and builder, and the working group and then the wider community are the clients who will direct the project.

When building a house, or in this case a safe cycling network, the architect needs to listen to their clients and make sure what they design will be the best fit, while considering the constraints such as budget and the site itself.

The first meetings of our working group have very worthwhile with a broad range of issues and views brought to the table with numerous barriers and benefits identified.