Power pole obstacle in Napier cycleway: Why the ‘post of the week’ is going to be taken down

The Eriksen Rd cycleway and its post of the week. Photo / Warren Buckland

On social media it has been called “the post of the week”.

But despite the fun people are having with it, it will soon be taken down.

That post is a power pole and it’s sitting in the middle of a newly-marked cycleway in a Napier street shedding its notorious past to become a newly-homed part of residential suburbia.

But, that’s there is a pole still there in Eriksen Rd – or any poles at all – is a matter of fate. Blame it on Cyclone Gabrielle.

Napier City Council staff say the overhead power poles had been programmed to be removed as part of Unison Network’s undergrounding of power supply in the expansion of Te Awa to the west, including the area between Eriksen Rd and Willowbank Ave.

The cyclone in February resulted in the cabling being repurposed for restoring power around the region and the reprioritising of the work crews, delaying the Eriksen Rd installations.

In addition, remedial works were required at the drain culverts where a cowshed once stood off Eriksen Rd north, further delaying the removal of the poles, which is now programmed for early in the new year, council staff told Hawke’s Bay Today.

Until then at least two poles will remain in the path of progress.

Eriksen Rd, now a blossoming part of Te Awa, once had a history so bad one end was closed off to try to curb the joy-riders, and the dumping and burning of stolen or old cars and other nefarious activity that used to plague the area, including its now-gone derelict cowshed.

Council staff say it is likely the closed intersection with Willowbank Ave will be reopened for cycle and pedestrian access, but as for whether it will become a “full intersection” again is up to the council’s transportation team, considering safety aspects with Willowbank Ave intersecting also with Maraenui gateway Geddis Ave nearby.