This new clip-on cycle lane is about to make biking over the State highway 6 Taramakau road-rail a whole lot safer.
While the clip-on, which forms part of the West Coast cycling rail trail will be largely completed, work to complete the link back onto the main highway won’t be finished until early next year.
A temporary high quality gravel finish will smooth the link in the meantime, until an asphalt surface is laid sometime in the next two months.
All cyclists will be anticipating the more relaxed journey offered by the customised cycling path, rather than the more fraught trip across the deck of the road-rail bridge.
Work on the cycling clip-on got underway in September. Steel beams have been bolted to the underside of the bridge and cantilevered out from 1.6 to 2.5m. Each of the bridge’s five piers has a wider passing bay.
The wooden clip-on deck and surrounds have been built in 2.4m sections. New safety mats around the rail line at each end of the bridge and the new clip-on, will make the existing bridge safer for both motorcyclists and bikers this summer.
Meanwhile, work is proceeding on the new Taramakau road-rail bridge, with geotechnical investigations completed. Construction may start as early as the end of 2016.