4 September 2015

Karori Road wall project has multiple benefits

Work starting on Karori Road next week will make a tricky intersection safer, reinforce a steep bank, and create space for future transport improvements.

Wellington City Council has engaged contractors Retaining and Civil Construction Ltd to build a strong new wall to retain the hillside between Flers and Lancaster streets and will widen the narrow section of road at the same time.

The retaining wall is the second new one to be built in the area. The other, completed in 2014, is outside Samuel Marsden Collegiate School.

The new walls, and work carried out on Karori Tunnel 3 years ago, are part of the Council’s ongoing programme to strengthen key structures and protect important transport routes.

Councillor Andy Foster, who chairs the Council’s Transport and Urban Development Committee and lives in Karori, says the existing wall is very obviously breaking up and progressively failing.

“The new wall has an expected life of at least 100 years, and we are taking the opportunity to widen this part of Karori Road and future-proof the route. It is the narrowest section of Karori Road.”

“The new wall will improve visibility and make turning right out of Lancaster Street safer and easier,” he says. “It will also give us more options when we start looking at the best way to make public transport and cycling improvements in the area.

“Wellington City leads the country in having the highest proportion of people who get to work, or where they are studying, by public transport, on foot or by bike. We want to build on that and increase the numbers by making changes to our streets that will give Wellingtonians more choice in how they get around.”

The $2 million Karori Road project will take about 10 months and involve major earthworks to remove a section of the bank. This will be carried out from the top and the bottom of the bank using diggers and other earthmoving machinery.

Work will include:
· clearing trees and vegetation from the bank

· trenching to put power and telecommunications services underground

· relocating poles

· installing long screws to anchor the new wall to the hillside

· constructing a new sprayed concrete wall

· installing a new safety fence at the top adjacent to the shared driveway

· planting/landscaping the area beside the fence.

Two lanes will operate on this section of Karori Road while the work happens but the lanes will be narrower than usual so occasional delays are possible. People may want to bypass the roadworks by exiting and entering Karori via Birdwood Street.

There will be no right turn into or out of Homeward Avenue (towards Karori town centre) once work gets under way at road level. A detour will be in place via Hatton Street.

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