Auckland Transport spends $600,000 to install pedestrian crossing and rip it up to reinstate road in Three Kings

AT says the cost of installing and ripping up the pedestrian crossing at Hayr Rd in Three Kings was $600,000. Photo / Bernard Orsman

Auckland Transport says it cost $600,000 to install and then rip up a raised pedestrian crossing designed to last 40 years.

The cost of installing the crossing at Hayr Rd in Three Kings in early 2022 was $463,000. Removing it and replacing it with a standard crossing cost about $133,000, AT said.

The full cost of the new works will not be known until the work has been completed.

Contractors began digging up the concrete crossing on Tuesday last week and the work is expected to take three weeks.

Auckland Transport spent $490,000 for a new raised pedestrian crossing on Williamson Ave in Grey Lynn. Photo / Jason Oxenham

“They make them. We break them,” one worker said.

The Hayr Rd costs follow revelations by the Herald that AT is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to install pedestrian crossings.

After a series of Herald stories, AT chief executive Dean Kimpton today announced a review of “all upcoming projects to ensure we are delivering affordable and practical solutions at as little cost to ratepayers as possible, including raised pedestrian crossings”.

“We are very aware of concerns that the cost of delivering these safety improvements has been too high in the past, and too disruptive to our roading network.”

AT has chewed through $6 million on 12 signalised crossings at an average cost of $500,000 and is in the process of spending close to a further $7m on 15 more crossings as part of a road safety programme.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has been scathing of AT's spending on pedestrian crossings. Photo / Michael Craig

Mayor Wayne Brown has been scathing of AT for spending $490,000 on a new raised pedestrian crossing at Williamson Ave in Grey Lynn, not far from his home, calling the $172,000 cost of traffic management “a disgrace”.

“There are people in AT who have convinced themselves that is a good spend of money and it’s not. I do subdivisions and to control speed and we roll out plastic road bumps. They cost $500. They [AT] have lost the plot in terms of value,” Brown said.

AT said the Hayr Rd project involved improvements to bus infrastructure on Hayr Rd and adjoining Warren Ave, saying the raised pedestrian crossing was included on behalf of the Puketāpapa Local Board.

The costs included:

• Bus stop relocations, new bus shelters and concrete bus shelter pads
• Bus stop road markings and “no stopping” yellow lines
• Other road marking and signage
• A raised pedestrian crossing
• Kerb and channel realignment and flush median realignment
• Footpath and vehicle crossing works
• Drainage works, catch pits and subsoil drainage
• Traffic management, including site set-up and take-down
• Topsoil and grass seed for damaged berm areas during the works
• Power connections for the bus shelters, relocation of water main connections

AT chief executive Dean Kimpton today announced a review of spending on pedestrian crossings. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Kimpton said AT would not compromise safety but recognised a common-sense approach was needed to ensure fit-for-purpose and affordable solutions that met the needs of all who walked and biked, as well as motorists.

“We have been clear that we will continue to implement measures that save lives and reduce injury, including raised crossings. We will also prioritise safety projects where there is strong community and local board support and clear evidence that we can reduce harm.

“The process we now have in place is ensuring all safety-related improvements are delivered in a more cost-effective and pragmatic way. Over time this approach will deliver safety outcomes, significant financial savings and less disruption for Aucklanders.”