People were able to provide feedback from 31 July to 28 August 2023. You can read their feedback and the staff recommendation as part of the agenda for the Hearings Panel.

The Hearings Panel will be held on the following dates:
Day one: Thursday 4 April 2024 at 9:30 am
Day two: Friday 12 April at 11.30am
Day three: Tuesday 30 April at 3pm

Venue: Committee Room 1, Level 2, Civic Offices, 53 Hereford Street, Christchurch

These are public meetings and you are welcome to attend.

We’re making improvements to the main road into New Brighton, including a new bridge across the Ōtākaro-Avon River and upgrading Pages Road east of Anzac Drive. This project also includes changes to the surrounding streets and intersections - some of which are key for improving the emergency evacuation of the area.

Our plans include better road alignments, road safety upgrades and traffic flow improvements, to make it safer to get in and out of New Brighton. And of course, we want it all to look great too, so landscaping is an important part of the project.

The new bridge and road will be more resilient to future earthquakes and the effects of climate change. It will be designed to improve access for everyone – from the truck and car drivers to the cyclists and dog walkers, and everyone in between. And importantly, this project will also provide for large volumes of traffic to exit New Brighton and the surrounding suburbs during planned and unplanned events.

Pages Road Bridge was built in 1931 and is the main route across the Ōtākaro-Avon River into New Brighton. The bridge and Pages Road suffered significant earthquake damage in 2011. Pages Road buckled and dropped in places, affecting drainage. Short-term emergency repairs have served their purpose, but it’s now time for a new bridge, and for the road to be upgraded to be even better than it was before the earthquakes.

To make all of the changes proposed in this consultation, additional funding will be required. The allocation of additional funding will need to be considered as part of 2024-34 Long Term Plan.

We’re really pleased to get this project underway for New Brighton, and we’re keen to know what you think! Read on to find out more about the project and tell us what you think.

Fly through the design

Move through the tabs to find out more about different parts of the project.

A fix for Pages Road

We're renewing Pages Road from Anzac Drive east to the new bridge to create a gateway that celebrates New Brighton.

We’re planning one lane eastbound into New Brighton and two lanes westbound out of New Brighton. This will significantly improve the traffic flow after large events such as the Winter Fireworks Spectacular and allow everyone to leave New Brighton more quickly during an emergency evacuation.

We’ll remove the bus stops halfway between Anzac Drive and the bridge, but the bus stops nearest Anzac Drive will remain. We're including on-road cycle lanes on each side of Pages Road and a new footpath on the south side of Pages Road, as well as a four-metre-wide path for walking and cycling along the north edge of the road. Eventually, the path will connect with the planned City to Sea Pathway and provide access points to other paths through the wetlands.

Two pedestrian islands – one just west of the bridge and one nearer to Anzac Drive – will make it safer for people to cross Pages Road.

Pages Road will be lined with native coastal forest planting to tie into the adjacent future wetlands. The mixed heights of plants will allow views through to the wetlands. A new centre median down the length of Pages Road between Anzac Drive and the bridge will be planted with Pohutakawa trees. These trees will encourage birds to fly at a safer height between the wetlands either side of the road and create that welcoming gateway to New Brighton.

A new bridge

It’s vital that we maintain emergency and every-day access to New Brighton while we build the new bridge and improve the road.

The new bridge will be slightly north of the existing one, allowing the current bridge to stay open while the new bridge is being built, which could take up to two years.

When the new bridge is open, the old one will be demolished.

A T-intersection with traffic lights

The roundabout at the New Brighton end of the bridge is no longer efficient or safe for all road users. We plan to remove the roundabout and create a signalised ‘T-intersection’ at the Pages Road, Seaview Road and Hawke Street intersection. This will make the intersection safer for everyone, including pedestrians and cyclists, and far more efficient - especially during an emergency evacuation from the coast.

To do this, New Brighton Road and Owles Terrace will not connect to the new intersection. While it might seem counter-intuitive, traffic modelling shows that closing these two roads in the intersection, along with the other road improvements, will take approximately 40 minutes off the emergency evacuation time for the whole area. Vehicles travelling from Owles Terrace will instead travel to Hardy Street and Seaview Road to access the bridge. Vehicles travelling from New Brighton Road will use Rawson and Keyes Streets to access New Brighton.

Traffic modelling

We know that New Brighton needs to be able to evacuate quickly if there’s an emergency, so a key aspect of this project has been to develop a road layout that is more efficient in an emergency evacuation.

We have conducted traffic modelling to test different road layouts, this has helped us to determine which road layout would be the most efficient in an evacuation. The traffic modelling has assumed the population of New Brighton leaves in vehicles, with two people per vehicle and is based on a quick response time (people acting quickly after a warning to evacuate).

Many different road layouts were tested by the traffic model, these included: leaving the road layout as it is currently, using giveway signs at the intersection vs. traffic lights, one lane westbound out of New Brighton vs. two lanes out, connecting New Brighton Road and Owles Terrace to the intersection. The road layout that is currently out for consultation is the most efficient option, making it approximately 40 minutes faster for the area to evacuate compared to the current road layout.

If you would like to find out how to be prepared for an emergency, head to our Civil Defence page.

Pocket park

We know that many people love the palm tree in the middle of the roundabout, and we do too. We plan to keep it as a feature in a new pocket park. There will be landscaping around the palm tree, and paths for walking and cycling.

Gateway artwork

To celebrate this area as the gateway to New Brighton, space has been reserved either side of Pages Road, east of the bridge for artworks. The artwork will be developed in collaboration with mana whenua. This is planned to happen during the detailed design of the project, leading into construction. There is also opportunity for artwork to be incorporated into other built and landscape elements such as the bridge handrails and paving patterns.

The work to upgrade Pages Road and build the new bridge will require changes to eight nearby roads.

Move through the tabs to find out more about different parts of the project.

We plan to resurface the road and align it with the new intersection, including changing the line markings to create the two lanes out of New Brighton. The on-road cycle lane will continue just past the Keyes Road intersection. We’ll need to include some no stopping restrictions to do this.

We plan to close Owles Terrace at both Beresford Street and Hardy Street to improve road safety, make emergency evacuation more efficient, and provide space for future flood protection measures along the river.

Owles Terrace residents will be able to access their properties from Beresford and Collingwood Streets.

A new shared accessway from the Owles Terrace and Beresford Street corner to an existing residential property will include walking and cycling access through to the new pocket park and the new bridge.

To accommodate the increased traffic, Hardy Street will need to be upgraded. We will improve the whole street including a new surface, replacing the deep-dish guttering with kerbs and adding in street trees and low planting.

Stop and give-way priorities will change at three of the intersections to improve north-south traffic flow.

All intersections along Hardy Street will have raised safety platforms to slow traffic to a 30km/h speed limit. This will make it way safer for everyone, including children and families getting to Nova Montessori School on the corner of Hardy Street, near Owles Terrace.

Seaview Road will also be resurfaced and the four-metre-wide path along Pages Road will continue as a three-metre-wide path down the north side of Seaview Road to provide a cycling and walking route towards Brighton Mall.

We’ll be moving the bus stop on the north side of Seaview Road east slightly, the bus stop on the south side will stay where it is.

To keep the well-established trees and incorporate the shared path on Seaview Road we’ll need to make the northern side of the road a no-stopping area from Hawke Street to Hardy Street.

New Brighton Road

New Brighton Road will be closed to vehicles between Rawson Street and Pages Road. This makes the new Pages Road intersection safer, emergency evacuation more efficient and allows space for future flood protection work. Pedestrians and cyclists will still have access through this section of New Brighton Road.

Rawson Street

As the primary route to New Brighton Road, Rawson Street will be upgraded with intersection improvements and raised safety platforms at the two bends in the road to slow traffic around these tight corners. We plan to resurface the road, replace the deep-dish guttering with kerb, introduce street trees, add P10 parking and landscaping outside the Beachcomber Dairy.

Pratt Street

Pratt Street will become a cul-de-sac and will be upgraded, including a new road surface and street trees and low planting.

Keyes Road

We plan to install a new pedestrian crossing on Keyes Road to make it safer for people to come and go from Rawhiti Domain.

The intersection between Keyes Road, Pratt Street and Rawson Street will be improved to make it safer.