Te Ara Pekapeka Bridge - a review
If you walk at all along the river from the gardens (the graveyard end), perhaps you’ve followed the building of Te Ara Pekapeka Bridge (and its little cousin - the pedestrian and cycle bridge over the northern end, the Taurapa Bridge) with interest already. I was trying to explain to an out-of-town work colleague about how much [many] Hamiltonians love their bridges - if you have local family members who are into the dreaded ‘route talk’, everything is explained in relation to the bridges. (A little like how some down-town, more corporate Wellingtonians are obsessed with the ferry crossings, despite rarely taking it themselves.)
In the current austerity climate, the bridge itself feels like it’s from another era completely- one with consultation, as a project that invested time, money, and the right expertise getting its relationship to local iwi and the environment (namely the pekapeka bat) right. Would this bridge have been green lit in its current form today? Would it have such wide pedestrian and cycle access? Or would what makes it such an excellent bridge have been eroded compromise by compromise, until only mediocrity was left?
I saw complaints the bridge wasn’t available to traffic immediately afterward the public opening on Saturday from 10-2pm. The motorists will come, of course, and I am one too (I think the cyclist-driver dichotomy is a false and beat-up one). We live in Hamilton East and my inlaws are in Te Awamutu, and I can’t wait to leg it across. Once they do, we can expect some complains about the T2 lane. (Why can’t I drive my car wherever and whenever I want?!)
But for now, at the time of writing, the bridge is still open to pedestrians and cyclists only (when it is open to motorists is not publicised out of safety concerns). It’s particularly beautiful in the evening light, where trees in the distance start to look misty; what’s striking is that a new structure like this unlocks completely new public views of the river we all think we know so well. It’s also nice that, especially so close to the gardens, these views are so accessible on foot, or on two (or three) wheels. If you cross the bridge from the gardens’ side, be sure to take the footpath down to the beach, and check out the handsome little roundabout to the South. It’s a little eerie - this is a bridge that’s been built to service a new suburb (Peacock) which doesn’t exist yet. But it’s a testament to getting public infrastructure right, because it is afterall an investment, and I only hope the future development it hopes to serve continues in the same spirit in which it was conceived.
