$5m upgrade leaves Auckland pedestrians out in the rain

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Quay St in downtown Auckland is to get a $5 million upgrade - but the budget does not stretch to providing shelter for pedestrians.

The city council has put aside $400,000 for artworks, but the tight budget and objections from the Historic Places Trust have ruled out any new shelter.

The chairman of the council's recreation and events committee, Scott Milne, said the improvements would transfer the street into an attractive, high-quality, people-friendly public space.

They include a median strip to stop vehicles doing u-turns, new lighting, street furniture and about 70 native trees on both sides of the street.

The council also plans to move the 25-tonne KZ1 America's Cup yacht to the west of the tourist information centre to make the entrance to Viaduct Harbour less cluttered.

Traffic lanes on Quay St, which carry 31,000 vehicles a day, will be narrowed to widen the footpath on the northern side.

The council of Mayor Les Mills proposed undergrounding Quay St at the Queen St end as part of its Britomart plans but this idea was dumped by the subsequent council of Christine Fletcher.

Her council planned an underground concourse from Customs St to the ferry building but dropped the idea to cut the cost of its Britomart plans.

An idea by the present council to extend the glass-covered canopy in Queen Elizabeth Square across Quay St to the ferry building was abandoned because it was too expensive and was opposed by the Historic Places Trust.

The council has still to decide what to do at the bottom of lower Albert St, which has one of the few clear harbour views from the central business district.

It has been suggested that five pouwhenua - vertical sculptures - carved by a member of Ngati Whatua in the early 1980s for a mall in Fort St that never went ahead - be placed at the bottom of Albert St on the northern waterfront side of the street.

The council is also investigating some form of public transport, possibly a tram, across an "art" bridge to connect the future waterfront development at the tank farm with Viaduct Harbour, Britomart and a planned indoor arena at the eastern end of Quay St.