Sale Street / Wellesley Street intersection improvements Sale Street / Wellesley Street intersection improvements
Auckland Transport (AT) is making changes to the Sale Street / Wellesley Street intersection to encourage safer vehicle speeds and improve accessibility for pedestrians.
Project status: Construction - last updated 20 October 2020.
Project zone: Central
Project overview
Pedestrian activity at the Sale Street / Wellesley Street intersection has increased significantly in recent years. As a result, we are making some improvements that will help make crossing the entrance of Sale Street and from Sale Street to the northern side of Wellesley Street easier and safer.
Benefits
At the conclusion of the work, people will see the following pedestrian safety improvements:
- Signalisation of the Sale Street / Wellesley Street intersection to provide a safer place for pedestrians to cross
- Widening the footpath space at the corners of Sale and Wellesley streets
- Removing the traffic island in the middle of the Sale Street exit onto Wellesley Street
- Permanently removing the car parking spaces that have already been removed as part of the temporary changes introduced by Auckland Council in 2019. An additional five parking spaces will be removed to enable the project to be constructed and to improve the visibility and accessibility of the new signalised intersection.
- Combining the existing two traffic lanes exiting Sale Street into one traffic lane
- Adding a new loading zone outside the Sweat Shop Brew Bar.
Auckland Council is investigating installing a garden in the former weigh bridge outside the City Works Depot. This will help filter pollutants and reduce the total quantity of storm water runoff.
Access to businesses and people’s residences will be uninterrupted throughout the construction period.
Construction timeline
- Mid-November 2020 to February 2021.
Cost or funding
This project is funded by the Regional Fuel Tax.
Project details
Auckland Transport consulted on the improvements proposed for this intersection in November and December 2019.
Auckland Transport will undertake improvements that will help make crossing the entrance of Sale Street, and from Sale Street to the northern side of Wellesley Street, easier and safer. Much of the work makes permanent the temporary improvements that were made by Auckland Council in November 2019.
In recent years, the intersection of Sale Street and Wellesley Street has become increasingly busy with apartment and commercial developments coming on line in Sale Street and increasing numbers of employment opportunities and entertainment destinations opening on Victoria street and in the Wynyard Quarter.
Vehicles have been observed entering Sale Street from Wellesley Street at unsafe speeds.
In November 2019, Auckland Council’s made temporary pedestrian improvements to the entrance to Sale Street that have effectively slowed traffic by narrowing the street’s entrance with planter boxes. Colourful polka dots were also added to the road surface to encourage drivers to slow down and pedestrians to be more aware of their surroundings.
As part of our commitment to Vision zero, we want to make our roads safe for everyone – people walking and cycling, especially our kids and senior citizens, as well as people driving. Projects like this are another step towards our goal of achieving no deaths or serious injuries on our roads.
Public engagement
We wanted to ask for your feedback on these proposed changes.
Local knowledge is very important to us and public feedback helps to ensure the best outcome for those who live, work, shop and play in the area.
Public feedback closed 8 December 2019.
Download the consultation feedback report (PDF 642KB).
Next steps
After carefully considering public feedback AT has decided to proceed with the project, subject to the following changes in response to public feedback: investigating opportunities to enhance the streetscape at the intersection. We will include the planter boxes as part of the permanent design.
In the future we will also be consulting on improvements to the Wellesley Street streetscape to enable more buses to move people reliably along this route.
These improvements will interface with the intersection changes at Wellesley/Sale Street.
Auckland Transport will be in touch with residents and local businesses once we have confirmed the construction timeline which is expected to start in August 2020 and conclude by the end of 2020.
We will work closely with the community to mitigate disruption as much as possible and ensure advance notice is given. This will include working closely with the appointed contractor to assess ways we can make the works happen as efficiently as possible to lessen the impact to road users.