Mills Lane and Swanson Street Improvements
What's happening now
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Planned
We're designing improvements to this area -
In Progress
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Completed
Project Map
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About the project
We’re working on improvements to Swanson Street and Mills Lane, which sit to the west of the Waihorotiu Queen Street Valley and both play an important role in our city centre. Swanson Street provides a key walking route through the city for thousands of people each day and the laneways provide essential loading and servicing functions.
We need to improve these laneways, to make them easier and safer for people to move through and to provide more space and ease for loading and servicing activities.
This upgrade will help ensure our city centre can function well, so people can do what they need to do with more ease. Whether it’s getting to their place of work, delivering services or equipment to businesses, or arriving home, we want our city centre streets to work better for people.
The project is guided by our visionary City Centre Masterplan which seeks to create a better-connected, safer and more accessible city centre, with improved spaces and streets.
Have your say
We are now about halfway through the design process, building on the concept design developed by Auckland Council in 2022. We now have a preliminary design developed that we would like your feedback on.
Overview of the design
When you view the preliminary design, you will see that we are proposing the following changes:
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A shared space environment at the intersection of Swanson Street and MIlls Lane
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A lower speed
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A safe and more accessible crossing point from Mills Lane to the Exchange Lane staircase
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Wider footpaths
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Loading and servicing improvements
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Better lighting
You can view the design and find out all of the information you need by viewing our Swanson Street and Mills Lane info pack. Public consultation is open until 4 June 2024. We hope you will give us your feedback to help us finalise the design.
Here are the ways you can give us your feedback:
Once you have viewed the design via our info pack, you can provide your feedback online by filling in our survey here. You can also download the survey and fill it out by hand and post it back to us. The postal address is at the top of the survey. Here is a link to the downloadable copy.
You can also talk to us about the design and what we have planned, during our public drop-in session. On Wednesday 22 May 2024, we will be at the Swansons Sandwich Bar between 10am - 4pm. Come and talk to us anytime (no registration required).
Join us online. On Thursday 23 May 2024, we are hosting a zoom session to take people through the design. This will be from 6 - 7 pm online via zoom. Please register for the online session here.
If you have any questions or would like to email us feedback, you can reach the project team at citycentre@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz .
Partnering with mana whenua
Our mana whenua partners for the project are Ngāti Maru and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. We are learning from them about the significance of the site and working to incorporate Māori outcomes into the project and will provide updates as the project progresses.
Dates
We’re currently in the preliminary design phase of the project, and we’re aiming to begin construction in early 2025. We'll share more updates as the construction programme is developed.
Further information
This project is part of a programme funded by the city centre targeted rate. The targeted rate is paid by commercial and residential property owners in the city centre and helps fund the development and revitalisation of the city centre.
The project is being coordinated alongside nearby private development to reduce disruption and prepare the street for large numbers of new tenants moving through the area. Swanson Street provides a key east-west pedestrian link in the city centre, and once City Rail Link construction is complete and buses return to Albert Street, it will be a busy connection to the Waihorotiu Queen Street Valley.
Questions? Contact the project team at citycentre@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
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