KEY POINTS:
Pedestrians and cyclists will be joined by a senior Cancer Society official in a "do or die" bid this week to persuade Transit NZ to allow them on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Cycle Action Auckland delegates and Walk Auckland leaders heading to a Transit board meeting in Wellington on Wednesday will include the society's health promotion manager, Dr Jan Pearson.
Cycle Action chairman Bevan Woodward said last night that the Heart Foundation had also offered to attend the meeting, but the size of the delegation was restricted.
He said both groups supported the health benefits of walking or cycling across the bridge, and Dr Pearson had expressed concern to Transport Minister Annette King at Transit's "disregard" of their needs.
Transit denies closing its mind against walking and cycling across the bridge, saying it is waiting for the results of a study into several proposals, including its own idea ofwidening the clip-ons for $30 million to $40 million and the pedestrian and cycling groups' preference for an under-$5 million fit within existing structures.
But Mr Woodward wants a cycleway on the western side of the bridge and a walkway on the other edge included in final design work for a separate $45 million project to strengthen the girders.
Because the strengthening work is due to start in July, he said it was "do-or-die time" to persuade Transit to add the cycling and walking links in conjunction with that project.
"If we are unable to get the Transit board to rectify this situation next Wednesday, then the opportunity to provide the walk-cycleway cost-effectively by 2011 will be lost."
Andy Smith of Walk Auckland said a recommendation confirmed last week by a study team that motorway and rail tunnels be dug under the harbour meant Transit would have to allow pedestrians and cyclists on the bridge sooner or later.
"The next harbour crossing will be a tunnel and oil prices are increasing, so why isn't Transit jumping on this golden opportunity?"
Transit regional manager Peter Spies said that although the design work to strengthen the box girders to hold extra loads had been "finalised", that did not mean time had run out for cyclists and pedestrians.
He said consultants were working on identifying a preferred option for cyclists and pedestrians before the end of June, after which another month would be spent assessing its costs.
