Honiana Te Puni Reserve

Once open, Honiana Te Puni Reserve will be the northern gateway to the Ngā Ūranga ki Pito-One section of Te Ara Tupua.

This area is starting to take shape with landscaping and planting work going well. We've also finished installing all the Gobi® blocks - a type of grid-like paving. Lighting has also been installed in the reserve car park.

Ngā Ūranga

At Ngā Ūranga, most of our work has been on finishing the piers, columns and approaches for the new shared user bridge.

The installations showcase precision engineering at the highest level. Logged between the rail line, state highway, and the harbour’s edge, we used a 100-tonne crane to lift and install the 18-tonne pier caps. This required carefully guiding ten 32 millimetre bars into slots of only 35 millimetres.

This week, we’ll be lifting in the connecting span that crosses the railway line. We'll then continue to pour the rest of the concrete surface of the bridge over the coming months.

Other work to tie in the bridge with the path will continue once the above work is complete.

What's to come

From next year we'll begin turning our attention to more of the finishing touches along the path.

Primarily this will involve things like completing all pavement work and line marking. We'll also need to finish the rest of the landscaping and the lighting along the path.

As we get closer to the end of this project, there will be some additional housekeeping work needed to achieve practical completion.

This includes achieving compliance with overall consenting, decommissioning our site compounds and fixing any minor defects – this might extend past opening but we’ll look to get things done as quickly as possible.

We'll also confirm the opening date in the New Year – but we're still on track for the second quarter of 2026.

Engineers' stories: Brandon Murray

Since 2022, Te Ara Tupua has been transforming the harbour’s edge along State Highway 2 – improving resilence and creating a safe, scenic path for walking and cycling.

What you see is impressive, but what you don’t see is the ingenuity and teamwork behind the build.

Brandon Murray, Senior Project Engineer at Downer, shares how coastal conditions, a narrow worksite, and innovative solutions like XBlocPlus® have tested his problem-solving skills – and why this project is one he’ll proudly point out to his kids in years to come.

Read Brandon’s story on Engineering New Zealand's website and discover the engineering and cultural creativity shaping Te Ara Tupua.

See - our protected species dog

We’ve committed to carrying out ecology sweeps to better protect kororā/little blue penguins as construction of Te Ara Tupua continues. These sweeps have become a key part of our processes.

Check out See – our protected species dog in action. See helps us protect endangered species like kororā/little blue penguins.

Our teams working on the ground also play a huge role in safeguarding wildlife. In addition to our moral obligation to safely share this space with these penguins, we have a legal requirement to follow processes designed to protect them. These processes are defined in our consent conditions, our management plans, and under the Wildlife Act.

Innovative solution to water supply issues

The team working on the shared user bridge had a small issue to solve recently. They had to pour concrete for the bridge decking but had no close water supply.

Their solution was to set up an automated system that recirculated water that was delivered to site by tanker.

Water is stored in large recycled containers which are linked to supply a timer-controlled pump which sprays water onto the concrete as it cured.

The run-off is collected via a salvaged gutter which then flows back into the containers. All of this was achieved with very little water loss and supervision.

Great work team.

Community AED back in Honiana Te Puni Reserve

Now that work around Waimarino, the new clubs building at the eastern end of the reserve, is complete, our community AED has been reinstalled. This is a 24/-hour, 7 day a week publicly available AED and is a great community asset, should it be needed in an emergency.

Events

• Catch us at Te Tōpūnga Hapori i Daly Street for a Bike Play Day alongside Free-Ride. We'll be there to talk about Te Ara Tupua but feel free to bring your own bikes and scooters or use the ones provided by Free-Ride. Tamariki will also have a chance to get creative and make a flag or tassel for their bike. More information here: https://www.free-ride.nz/event-details/free-ride-daly-street-play-day-8

More information

For more information on the Te Ara Tupua project, contact us at TeAraTupua@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/TeAraTupua