Hamilton Road Cycleway Project FAQs

This project is to construct Cambridge’s first ever dual cycleway on Hamilton Road. Once complete, it will connect with sereval shared pathways and stretch from the Victoria Street roundabout to the Avantidrome. It will be carried out in three stages – the first from the Bryce Street roundabout to Vogel Street. This is expected to take around four months to complete.

The budget for the first stage of this project is $1.6M. Around 49 per cent of this will be ratepayer funded and the other 51 per cent will come from Waka Kotahi NZTA.

By 2050, the population of Cambridge is expected to nearly double - that’s a whole lot of residents and a whole lot of cars.

On either side of Hamilton Road, we’ve started installing the waters infrastructure for two major housing developments, known as C2 and C3. They’ll provide for around 3400 new dwellings, a neighbourhood centre and a new primary school. One of the key purposes of this new cycleway is to provide a path for those residents to get into town easily by bike or on foot rather than having to rely on their cars.

Yes, part of our long term cycle path development strategy is to extend the cycleway across Cambridge and transform the town into a cycle and pedestrian friendly hub.

Yes, this project was considered and approved as part of the 18/19 to 20/21 Long Term Plan.

Hamilton Road is one of our busiest urban streets and poses a very high risk to cyclists and walkers who try to cross it or bike along it. This project will largely address this by providing a pedestrian/cyclist traffic light crossing at Grey Street and by providing a cycle path which is separated from traffic.

No, the Hamilton Road Cycleway project is separate to the Streets for People project although both have similar end goals. Streets for People will see temporary changes made to several streets in Cambridge to create vibrant and attractive routes for kids – and all of us - to walk, bike and scooter to school and around town.

The Hamilton Road Cycleway is part of a long term strategy to transform Cambridge into a pedestrian and cycle friendly town. We are also applying for further funding to improve walking and cycling infrastructure in Cambridge and Te Awamutu over the next 10 years. This is the Urban Mobility Business Case. You can read more about this at www.waipadc.govt.nz/urbanmobility.

With the Velodrome in close proximity, Cambridge has more need for cyclist infrastructure at this stage. However, we are looking to improve walking and cycling across the district.

Due to the very low traffic volumes on these sections of Grey Street and Hall Street, any impact on nearby streets is expected to be very minor.

We will however, carefully monitor this after construction to ensure no safety issues arise.

As part of this project, Council will change both sides of Grey Street and the south side of Hall Street where they meet Hamilton Road to one-way access. This will allow cars to continue to exit these streets into Hamilton Road.

This change is important because it will help us reduce the speed and volume of traffic on these streets to make them cycle friendly streets which is critical for future walking and cycling networks in Cambridge.