Construction of Dunedin’s $8 million one-way system cycleway should begin soon.
Tenders for the work closed on June 16, and an NZTA spokeswoman said yesterday the tender was expected to be awarded at the end of next week.
The end of the tender process should mean finer details of the work, including exactly how parking will be affected, will become clear.
Early this year, NZ Transport Agency projects team leader Simon Underwood said the new cycleway would result in the loss of about 258 parks, 130 fewer than originally mooted earlier in design development.
The separated cycleway will run on both the north and south-bound one-ways, between the Dunedin Botanic Garden and Queens Gardens.
The project is intended to provide safe cycling on a roading system over-represented in fatal and serious crashes. There have been two fatalities since 2011.
The first stretch to be built will run between the botanic garden and Albany St.
The push for a separated cycleway started in earnest after Dr LiHong He (34), a senior lecturer at the University of Otago school of dentistry, died after being run over by a truck outside Dunedin Hospital in 2012 while cycling.
The NZTA widened cycleways and, at the request of the Dunedin City Council, began designing a separated cycleway.
