Shelly Bay Road to Tauhinu Road

Separated walking and biking paths through the cutting have made this busy area safer and easier, and will encourage less-confident riders to cycle on this route. A shared path from Maupuia Road was designed to encourage slow speeds closer to the Miramar shops.

The bike path through Miramar cutting connects Miramar with the new Cobham Drive paths and ongoing improvements  around Evans Bay, as well as safer new routes in Kilbirnie and over to Newtown. In the future, it will also link to other proposed routes in Miramar and possible phase 2 options for Miramar Avenue through the shopping centre. 

• From Shelly Bay Road there is a separate 2m-wide footpath and 3m-wide two-way bike path through Miramar cutting.
• The two paths merge into a 5m-wide shared path near Maupuia Road that continues to Z Energy, to create a slow zone towards the shopping area.
• The roundabout at the Tauhinu Road/Portsmouth Road intersection has been improved with new traffic islands and kerbs to provide safe places for people to cross the road and to reduce vehicle speeds.
• The Council worked closely with Z Energy which was keen to make their entry/exit driveway on Miramar Avenue safer, and before making the permanent changes, trialled a closure of the right-turn lane into the service station. 
• People biking are able to bypass the roundabout by using a combination of the shared path, new crossing point between the Z Energy and Portsmouth Road corners and new ramps to get on and off the road.
• A new kerb on the corner of Portsmouth Road narrowed the approach to the roundabout to encourage safer speeds. Large trucks are still able to turn and manoeuvre in this area.
• To make space for the new paths and retain the central median, the traffic lane on the Maupuia side was narrowed, and the left-turn slip lane into Maupuia Road removed. These changes have also helped to encourage safer vehicle speeds.
• At the intersections of Shelly Bay Road, Maupuia Road and Tauhinu Road new raised dual crossings have been constructed. Drivers are legally required to give way to pedestrians and people on bikes. Dual crossings are used in other New Zealand cities, but these were some of the first in Wellington.
• The bus stop on Maupuia Road was moved slightly further back along the road to make space for the dual crossing.
• On Miramar Avenue the bus shelter near Tauhinu Road was removed to make space for the new paths. The bus stop is still in this location and mainly used by people getting off buses.  
• The project included planting more than 450 hardy, native coastal trees, plants and grasses.  One small pohutukawa tree near the Tauhinu Road roundabout was removed.    
• Apart from minor improvements, the corner area between the Cobham Drive paths and Shelly Bay Road will remain as is for now because this land is privately owned.

 Read the 2017 Traffic Resolution report.

Enterprise Miramar Peninsula Inc (the Miramar BID), a group of local business people, members of the community, Wellington City Council transport planners, and others worked together in late 2016 and 2017 to look at the best ways to redevelop this section of Miramar Avenue, as well as the area between Tauhinu Road and Park Road. This involved balancing competing demands to make getting about and passing through this very busy area safer for everyone, including people on foot and bikes.

It was part of a wider in-depth look at the east.

Two possible options for Miramar Avenue between Tauhinu Road and Park Road were developed as well as a proposal for the connection through into Miramar. This followed a series of three workshops hosted by Enterprise Miramar and facilitated by the Council from November 2016 to January 2017. 

The first workshop examined the transport issues and what the solutions might look like. The second and third workshops developed a long list of options for transport improvements and then narrowed these to a short list for presentation at public drop-in sessions.

Two public drop-in sessions were held at the ASB Sports Centre in March 2017. These were an opportunity to learn more about and help plan (provide input/feedback) on proposed bike and walking improvements on Cobham Drive, Evans Bay to Oriental Bay, Kilbirnie connections, Miramar connections and Miramar town centre.

After this, Enterprise Miramar Peninsula hosted three more workshops facilitated by the Council.  

There was then an opportunity in September 2017 to provide feedback on short-listed options for a number of streets in the east including Evans Bay Parade (Greta Point to Carlton Gore Road) and streets in Kilbirnie and Miramar. This included Miramar town centre section 2. 

A formal traffic resolution for the section of Miramar Avenue between Shelly Bay Road and Tauhinu Street (section 1) was run in tandem with this – with consultation beginning Monday 4 September and closing Monday 2 October 2017.

Two more drop-in sessions were held at the ASB Sports Centre during the consultation period.  

The Council analysed feedback to help determine the proposed designs for the various streets, including the coastal route around Evans Bay. It also decided which projects to progress first.

Decisions were influenced by what people told us, the funding available, more detailed information about likely costs for the different projects, and a desire to start with busy sections that would make the biggest contribution to the planned network.

Changes were made to the proposal for Miramar Avenue (section 1) as a result of the feedback received, and the concept was further developed during detailed design.

Only section 1 was put forward for Council approval in November 2017. This was in part because it had been agreed with the Enterprise Miramar that the development of Miramar Avenue should be staged. Also, funding for section 2 was likely to be some years away.  Section 2 was put on hold, and no further work has been done on that to date. There will be more community consultation before anything there is progressed.

We have received feedback from the community about this project. Click here to view the summary graphs.

You can read a report on the feedback here. 

Changes were made to the proposal following public feedback. The most significant was the decision to not replace the Miramar Avenue/Tauhinu Road and Portsmouth Road roundabout with traffic signals as proposed, but to potentially reconsider them if and when section 2 is progressed.

As a result of feedback from the Heavy Haulage Association and some Maupuia residents, the Council also removed the traffic islands/planter beds that had been proposed for Miramar Avenue near the turn from Maupuia Road. It instead agreed to retain a central painted median to accommodate right turns out of Maupuia Road and for right turns into Shelly Bay Road.

Some changes, including around driveways, have been made during the development of the detailed designs/construction plans following discussions with the adjacent property owners/business owners.