Between the street rocks and a hard place

Kerbstones in Queen St. The old narrow stones are to be replaced. Picture / Greg Bowker

The $40 million upgrade of Queen St has hit a rocky patch over keeping kerbstones quarried by prisoners in the 19th century.

The old bluestone kerbstones are being removed and replaced with wider replica kerbstones while Auckland City politicians, officers and groups including the Historic Places Trust debate what to do.

Six months after work started on upgrading Queen St, Auckland City councillors and officers have still to resolve the kerbstone issue.

A decision is expected before the next stage of paving, from Wakefield St to Wellesley St, starts next month.

Council heritage manager George Farrant said he liked the new, wider bluestone kerbstones but wanted to keep some of the history in the new Queen St.

"I like places to have a little bit of hairiness and the feel of old textures. There is no better example than the old prison-quarried basalt [bluestone] kerbs, complete with circular indentations where old cast-iron verandah posts sat," he said.

"It avoids the slightly more garish consequences of destroying everything and starting again."

He has proposed keeping about 30 to 40 per cent of the original kerbstones in lines between the new bluestone-paved footpath and pedestrian bays sticking out from the footpath. Replicas would still run the length of the kerbline.

Mr Farrant said the Historic Places Trust wanted to go further and keep the original stones as kerbstones. The trust's northern general manager, Sherry Reynolds, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The officer in charge of the Queen St upgrade, Jo Wiggins, said she was keen to retain the kerbstones, but a way of doing it had to be resolved.

Depending on what the council decides, original kerbstones could be installed in the completed stage of the project from Mayoral Drive to Wellesley St by cutting through the new paving and inserting some kerbstones.

Councillors Glenda Fryer and Christine Caughey said they liked the original kerbstones and the heritage quality they brought to Queen St.

Meanwhile, the council has postponed a meeting to decide the fate of another heritage issue - whether to keep the city's distinctive red-chip footpaths. Officers want to ditch red-chip footpaths for black concrete. No date has been set for a new meeting.