Skybridge links city suburbs

The Onehunga-Hillsborough cycle and pedestrian bridge is now open. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Pedestrians and cyclists have been quick to take advantage of a new bridge linking Hillsborough and Onehunga across Auckland's widened Southwestern Motorway.

The blue and white cable-stayed structure - between Seacliffe Rd in Hillsborough and Beachcroft Ave in Onehunga - is wider and longer than a bridge it has replaced, which had a supporting pier in the way of a new southbound motorway lane.

It is 3.5m wide and almost 65m long, spanning the enlarged motorway and its Queenstown Rd off-ramp, on the outside of which a new cycle track is being built to connect with the bridge and Orpheus Drive along Onehunga's waterfront.

Contractors working on the $230 million Manukau Harbour crossing duplication project lost little time in demolishing the old bridge after the Transport Agency opened the new structure last week, to allow the new roadway to be sealed beneath it.

That is because a second four-lane motorway bridge over the harbour is nearing completion, and is expected to be ready for southbound traffic in early July.

Mt Roskill Community Board chairman and nearby resident Richard Barter said he was pleased the agency had agreed to delay demolishing the old footbridge until the new one was ready, as it was used by many children to get to school and an alternative route across the busy Queenstown Rd roundabout would have been too dangerous.