Heartwood Avenue pedestrian bridge
Kia ora, welcome to the Heartwood Avenue pedestrian bridge project page. Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about the project, including concept designs, dimensions, and a timeline of upcoming steps. Check out the information on the right-hand side of this page for all this and more.
About the project
The Heartwood Avenue pedestrian bridge is a key component of the Ōmokoroa Road urbanisation efforts, designed to connect Heartwood Avenue to Tui Glen. This project aims to enhance the connectivity and accessibility of the local community, promoting safer and more convenient pedestrian travel.
Project specifications
- Length: 65m
- Width: 3.5m
- Start date: November 2024
- Completion date: End of April 2025
Community benefits
Enhanced accessibility: The bridge will provide a vital link between residential areas and local amenities, facilitating easier access for pedestrians and potentially vehicles in the future.
Safety improvements: By providing a dedicated pedestrian route, the bridge will significantly enhance safety for all road users, reducing the likelihood of pedestrian-vehicle interactions.
Aesthetic enhancements: The adjacent Tui Glen section will be landscaped to improve the visual appeal of the area, creating a more pleasant environment for residents and visitors alike.
Visual and environmental impact
We understand that construction projects can impact the local environment and community's daily life. We are committed to:
Minimising disruption: Employing construction methods that reduce noise and other disturbances.
Preserving local aesthetics: Designing the bridge and surrounding areas to enhance the local landscape, ensuring that the final structure is both functional and visually appealing.
What's happening now?
13 January 2025
To complete the bridge, we need to install four 914mm diameter piles to depths of around 50m below ground level for the bridge to be supported off.
When installing these piles, a combination of large vibration and drop hammers are used to penetrate the pile into the ground. The vibration hammer can be used for most of the driving, but at isolated times when a hard ground layer is encountered, the drop hammer needs to be used.
The use of this drop hammer is the loud banging that has been occurring in the area since works started in November. It involves dropping a nine-tonne weight from a height of approximately 1m every 2-3 seconds to physically push the pile into the ground. Unfortunately, this is the only method for driving the piles through the hard layers and there is no option of using sound protection around the hammer due to it being supported from a crane.
To date we have installed two of the permanent piles to depth on the Tui Glen side of the project. In January and February 2025, we will continue to install the remaining two piles on the Heartwood Ave side which will involve more use of the drop hammer. Through this period no pile driving will be done prior to 8am and the drop hammer will only be used when absolutely necessary.
The piles are expected to be fully installed by the end of February 2025.
11 November 2024
Construction of the bridge started today, following a site blessing and meeting with an archaeologist, who showed us what items we should look out for while excavating the site. If there are any interesting finds, we'll let you know!
