Safe Communities Programme - Mangere Bridge Safe Communities Programme - Mangere Bridge

Auckland Transport (AT) is working alongside communities in Māngere Bridge to make changes to roads outside Māngere Bridge Village area and around the neighbouring schools in order to improve accessibility and safety for pedestrians.

Project status: Construction - last updated 3 September
Project zone: South

Auckland Transport and Higgins Contractors started construction on the Māngere Bridge Safer Community programme on 9 March 2020.

We have undertaken an extensive three phase engagement with the Māngere Bridge community on our safer communities proposal. We heard your feedback in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and this has helped us to understand local concerns about the area. We are now ready to construct pedestrian improvements that have been designed in close partnership with the community.

You can read the outcomes of these consultations in the feedback section below.

Mangere Bridge

Project overview

The aim of the project is to improve safety for pedestrians and help ensure walking is a desirable option for people. Pedestrian surveys have backed the need for improvements to be made given the high numbers of people including school children walking on these roads.

80% of all road deaths and serious injuries occur on 50km/h local urban roads. Nearly half of those deaths and injuries involve vulnerable road users – children, the elderly, people walking and people on bikes or motorcycles. We are committed to making the roads safer for vulnerable users and these changes will help improve safety for the many pedestrians including school children walking these routes.

The roads we are proposing improvements to include Coronation Road, Wallace Road, Church Road, and Mountain Road.

Objectives

Giving greater priority to pedestrians and cyclists’ end to end journey
People feel safe on routes
Reduce traffic speed where appropriate and make it more consistent across areas
Improve people’s ability to cross the road safely
Build an environment to support more compliant and alert driving behaviours.

Mangere Bridge business open as usual.

Timeline

Swanson Road Carpark entrance

AT is currently still doing construction work in the village shopping area. We are now working on constructing a left-turn entrance to the council carpark area outside the supermarket. Please note that from 2 to 9 September this entrance is CLOSED and entry is via Swanson Road.

McIntyre Road closures

Permanent changes to Swanson Carpark:

AT is installing a LEFT TURN ONLY carpark entrance on McIntyre Road
Swanson Road becomes the entry for right turning and left turning traffic on McIntyre Road
Swanson Road will become a one-way road only up to the library
You can still enter Swanson Road from Church Road, but cars will no longer be able to exit on McIntyre Road. We will construct a turning around area.

Mountain Road and Miller Road Intersection upgrade

AT has begun work to upgrade the Mountain Road and Miller Road intersection. We are putting in drainage, speed tables and a round-about island upgrade. This work started on 10 August and will run until 27 September.

All existing traffic movements will be maintained, and a safe footpath will be available for pedestrians at all times.

Generally, the hours of work are 7am to 5pm, Monday to Friday but may need to work outside these hours, and/or work at night on some occasions.

AT will communicate these works in advance and have a noise management plan in place to ensure disruption and inconvenience is minimised as much as possible. As a live construction site, please note traffic delays can be expected and detours will be in place. Please take extra care when moving through this area.

Mountain Road and Miller Road Intersection being upgraded.

Public consultation

From 19 November to the 14 December 2018 we asked for feedback on the proposal and received 121 submissions.

This was the third consultation phase with the Māngere Bridge community on this proposal to ensure pedestrian improvements are designed in partnership with the community.

Feedback report

We have created a public feedback report which summarises the feedback received, details Auckland Transport’s response to the feedback and explains the outcome of consultation.

Download the Māngere Bridge public feedback report 2019 (PDF 1.2MB, 41 pages).

Consultation supporting documentation

During construction

All existing traffic movements will be maintained, and a safe footpath will be available for pedestrians at all times.

Generally, the hours of work are 7am to 5pm, Monday to Friday but may need to work outside these hours, and/or work at night on some occasions. We will communicate these works in advance and have a noise management plan in place to ensure disruption and inconvenience is minimised as much as possible.

As a live construction site, traffic delays can be expected and detours in place.

Auckland Transport has read and reviewed all the feedback received during the consultation on the proposed walking improvements in Māngere Bridge. AT will proceed with the proposal. However, as a direct result of the feedback, AT has made the following revisions:

Māngere Bridge Village

The western service lane (at the back of the village shops) will be retained as a two-way instead of the one-way consulted on and upgraded with speed humps along the lane.
At roundabouts we will ensure that there will be a one-car queue length between the limit line and ramp of the speed table so cars won’t be ‘stopping’ on the zebra crossing while waiting for a gap to leave the roundabout.
We will add new bike racks outside the supermarket
After further investigation we will add two new car parking spaces at the supermarket car park rather than the three consulted on.
We will convert several car parking spaces to disabled car parks.

Church Road

The profile of the raised pedestrian crossings will now be more gentle on exit which means drivers will only need to slow on the approach and is more comfortable for bus passengers.

Taylor Road

We will add ‘slow’ road marking and build out kerbs at the crest of Taylor Road to encourage slower vehicle speeds on approach to Māngere Bridge School.

Mountain Road

We will no longer move and upgrade the existing crossing outside Mountain View School. Instead we will investigate raising and upgrading the existing crossing. We will consult with proximity affected properties for the possibility of 1 or 2 car parks to be removed at this location to enable this.
The proposed raised zebra crossing on the northern approach at the intersection with Miller Road will be relocated closer to the intersection.
Two sets of new side islands with “SLOW” road marking and red road paint will be introduced near #79 and #116 Mountain Road.

Domain Road

The proposed raised crossing will be located outside #5 Domain Road, instead of #3 Domain Road. The relocation will provide a better design for the required crossing widths of a zebra crossing.

Wallace Road

Some existing bus stops will be further formalised with road marking which could result in some on-street car parking removal to improve bus movements.
Instead of side islands we are looking to add pedestrian refuge islands at three locations on Wallace Road to improve pedestrian crossing amenity.
As part of the above investigations we will extend the new footpath to link to the Watercare Coastal Walkway which will improve connectivity.

Other investigations

As a direct result of feedback, AT will also be investigating the following improvements.

Seaforth Avenue/Kiwi Esplanade intersection

We are investigating intersection improvements at the Seaforth Ave / Kiwi Esplanade intersection.
This is subject to investigation and available funding.

Muir Avenue

We are currently reviewing bus stop locations and crossing facilities outside 45 and 46 Muir Avenue and will consult with affected properties before any changes occur.

Mountain Road

We are investigating additional traffic calming measures or crossing facilities along the northern end of Mountain Road. This is subject to further consultation with the school and available funding.

Your feedback provided us with some strong areas of focus to help make Māngere Bridge safer for walking. We have taken your feedback on board and used it to make a draft plan of where we could build improvements to make the most difference with the budget that we have for this programme of work.

The key areas that we have identified are:

Māngere Bridge Village area (including Swanson Road and the service lane section in front of the Library and Swanson Park).
Māngere Bridge School and surrounding roads.
Mountain View School and Auckland Seventh-day Adventist School zone and surrounding roads
Church Road.
Wallace Road (including Waterlea Primary School and its surrounding roads).

From your feedback, we identified the following key themes:

Locations you identified where pedestrian crossings are needed (58 responses) as there is currently no safe place to cross.
Traffic speed (44 responses) on certain streets – residential and arterial - puts some people off walking, and puts pedestrians at risk.
Places where the footpath is too narrow and makes walking difficult and for footpath users to pass each other safely and comfortably (27 responses).
Locations where footpaths are uneven or in need of repairs/maintenance (24 responses).
Lack of sufficient lighting to feel safe (19 responses) was highlighted as an issue.
Visibility was a highlighted as a concern at specific locations where it is difficult for drivers to see pedestrians and vice versa (19 responses).
No footpath exists (18 responses).
Traffic volume (14 responses) make some streets uninviting to walk
Existing crossings unsafe or inadequate in some way/ not as safe to use as they should be (13 responses).
Improving access for differently abled people within the community to move around (11 responses). Of particular concern was uneven surfaces and lack of ramps on kerbs at intersections.

Download the Māngere Bridge public feedback report (PDF 1.8MB, 45 pages).

Previous consultation supporting material