SkyPath cycleway over Auckland Harbour Bridge due for funding announcement today

Computer generated image of the proposed Skypath cycleway and pedestrian footbridge to be built on the Auckland Harbour Bridge looking north.

Funding details for the SkyPath walking and cycle path over the Auckland Harbour Bridge are expected to be outlined by the Government today.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Green Party co-leader James Shaw will make a funding announcement at Northcote Pt on the North Shore side of the bridge at lunchtime.

The Government has already announced it will fully fund SkyPath and plans to connect it with SeaPath, a 3km cycle and walkway from Northcote Pt and along the motorway to Esmonde Rd in Takapuna at a combined cost of $99 million.

The whole project is due to be completed by 2021.

Three-quarters of a million people are forecast to use the harbour crossing initially, with estimates rising to 1.2 million in five years. Not all those using the crossing will be cyclists but once the project is up and running it is certain to become a popular bike route.

The SkyPath project has suffered a series of setbacks since it received resource consent in November 2016, including Downer Construction pulling out from building it in February last year and, five months later, the SkyPath Trust withdrawing support from the public-private partnership (PPP) formed to build and toll it.