Auckland Harbour Bridge ‘Walk It. Wheel It.’ postponed

An Auckland Harbour bridge event in March which includes e-bikes and e-scooters has been postponed due to Cyclone Gabrielle recovery commitments.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has decided to postpone the planned Walk It. Wheel It. events, scheduled to take place across the Waitematā Harbour on March 12, 19 and 26 – now likely to held from November.

The events have been postponed to allow all available contracting resources to be directed to the response and recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle, says NZTA multimodal integration national manager Deborah Hume.

 “The top priority for Waka Kotahi currently is restoring access to isolated communities in the North Island as soon as possible to enable essential services and supplies to get through,” she explains.

“We have crews working very hard to re-open roads across the state highway network.

 Hume says partners Auckland Transport and Auckland Council are also still dealing with a number of road network disruptions across the Auckland region, adding: “It wouldn’t be appropriate to proceed with this event in the city at this time.”

The NZTA says it remains committed to enabling Aucklanders from across the whole of Tāmaki Makaurau to enjoy the opportunity to travel across the bridge on foot, bikes, scooters and other wheeled devices.

Hume says: “The planning and organisation work we’ve already done means we’ll be ready to go when these events are re-scheduled, and we are working to secure another set of dates for next summer from November.”

Meanwhile, the Government has moved to put in place a Cabinet committee and regional ministerial leads to help coordinate the Central Government response and recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle, says prime minister Chris Hipkins.

The new Extreme Weather Recovery Committee will be chaired by cyclone recovery minister Grant Robertson with Barbara Edmonds as deputy. Hipkins and emergency management minister Kieran McAnulty will also be members. 

“We are providing an initial $50 million support package for businesses, farmers and growers, as well as injecting an extra $250 million to help councils fix roads, get transport links back up and access into communities,” says Hipkins who expects the rebuild will cost many billions.

He says recovery will take a long time, so the committee will help steer the work needed.

“I’m putting in place ministers for each affected region (including transport minister Michael Wood for Auckland and Coromandel), who will work directly with local councils on the local response.”

The Extreme Weather Recovery Committee will meet for the first time next week.

A newly announced taskforce led by Sir Brian Roche will feed into and report back to the committee.

Hipkins says the Cyclone Gabrielle response will still be led by local civil defence and supported by the National Emergency Management Agency.