The Festival of Rock was designed as an opportunity to discover what hides along the shores of the Hutt River. The kids marvelled at the creepy crawlies living in the Hutt River and were particularly amazed at the crabs!

The Riverbank beach was a hive of activity with rock art, skimming competitions, rock pools and face painting. We made sure that marvellous local coffee was part of our container talks too.

Kids searched the beach for a blue rock, and then with chocolate in hand decorated their rocks with splendid creativity. The last event in our summer series, 240 people (adults and kids) enjoyed the space with us on a glorious sunny day. While the kids were out hunting it gave their parents a chance to pop in for a coffee and chat about the RiverLink project with the project team.

We had such a great time together at the River and there’s no doubt that the Riverbank beach will be teeming with locals next summer too.

Due to a severe weather warning the RiverLink Ramble scheduled for April was postponed then later

cancelled. Thank you to everyone who registered.

RiverLink would like to extend an open invitation for groups (minimum 10 people) for a guided walking tour of the RiverLink city section between Ewen and Melling Bridges. Get your friends together and once we have the minimum number we will send out an invitation to arrange a date and time.

It’s an opportunity to stand in the space and visualise where things will be and how it all fits together.

Register your interest at RiverLink@gw.govt.nz

If a new Melling station is built south of the current station, there are opportunities to preserve what people like about the current station and to consider additional amenities. The RiverLink team conducted an online survey to learn what people would like to see at or nearby a new station. Forty-three people took part in the survey.

Topping the wish list of amenities were weather protected waiting facilities, good pedestrian and cycling access to the station and security measures such as security cameras and lighting. Suggestions of ‘other’ things people would like to see included: ticket kiosk, public toilets, bike lockers and post boxes.

The two most popular businesses and services people wanted to see near the station were a mini-mart and restaurant/take-away. Consistent with what the project team heard when talking to commuters, there were also numerous suggestions to extend the hours and days of operation and extend the line further north.

The survey asked if people would use the station ‘more’, ‘the same’ or ‘less’ if the station were moved. Sixty percent of respondents said moving the station wouldn’t change how much they use it, while 26% said they would use it more and 14% said they would use it less. Those who said they would use it more cited the better access to the city centre and Queensgate that would be provided by the pedestrian and cycle bridge across to Margaret St. Most of those who said they would use a new station less, cited the

additional walking distance from the western hill suburbs as the reason.

The week of 20 November, the RiverLink engagement container was set up at the Melling train station and commuters were invited to tell the project partners what they thought about moving the Melling station south of its current location.

“The people who use the station every day have important insights that will help us shape the next steps of the project. We were delighted to hear that people largely support moving the station and are enthusiastic about our opportunity to rejuvenate Hutt centre,” says Rebecca Polvere, RiverLink project manager.

The project team were available at the container during the morning and evening commute to explain the proposal to commuters and hear their thoughts on how such a move would impact their commute. During this time about 200 people visited the container and talked with the project team.

While most commuters said that shifting the station 250 to 500 metres south of its current location wouldn’t significantly impact their commute, many raised the merits of extending the Melling line further north so that additional suburbs would have access to public transport. A number of commuters also suggested extending the hours of operation later into the evenings and offering weekend service.

Walking to the station and crossing SH2 from the western suburbs was one of the most frequently raised topics “There was strong support for addressing how people walk across the SH2 at the Melling intersection and we heard many comments about the safety and crossing wait time problems people currently experience, we heard so many stories about watching the train pull away from the platform while standing on the wrong side of the highway. People are very keen to have a new intersection that would

be safer, quicker and easier to cross,” says Rebecca.

Parking was another hot topic. People strongly supported the proposal to provide additional parking at a new station but some wondered how the loss of the riverbank parking would impact parking availability for commuters. Several people mentioned that station parking is currently being taken by people who don’t actually use the train but instead work in Lower Hutt and are attracted to the free parking. The project team were encouraged to consider ideas on how parking at a new station could be managed to meet the needs of the community.

The RiverLink engagement container and project team were at Lower Hutt City’s Highlight - Festival of Lights in October 2017. RiverLink partnered with Victoria University Wellington landscape architect students Nicole Crawford and Kadin Hegglun to create Down to the River, a river themed light and sound landscape inspired by the RiverLink designs and the River. Thousands of people walked through the experience and talked to the RiverLink design team.

Down to the River was one of around 20 exhibits and dozens of entertainers that attracted tens of thousands of people to central Lower Hutt over four nights.

Hutt City Council’s Urban Design Manager, Paki Maaka, was delighted with the amount of interest in RiverLink and people’s understanding of the project and its potential.

“For Lower Hutt, RiverLink is so much more than making us safer from floods. It’s great to see so many of our residents taking an active and informed interest in the project and sharing their ideas about making Lower Hutt better. Later this year we’ll share with the community more of the preliminary design and a model of what RiverLink will look like when the city turns to face the river,” he says.

RiverLink provides an opportunity for Lower Hutt to refashion the area between the city and the river into

a lively recreational belt around the Hutt City centre. A promenade will be created that connects to and

over the flood protection stopbanks and will include a pedestrian bridge from Margaret Street to Pharazyn Street, opportunities for urban living in new apartments and space for cafes and retail overlooking the river.

At a time when water quality has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, The RiverLink flood protection project is gearing up to improve the water quality of Te Awa Kairangi / Hutt River.

Do you have fond childhood memories of playing in the Hutt River and enjoying everything the river park corridor has to offer? The great news is that things are going to get better!

RiverLink will improve the health and habitats in and along the Hutt River. There will be more fish habitat, with a mix of pools, fast flowing shallow water, vegetation, rocks, and undercut banks - all the things that short-fin eel (tuna), trout, whitebait (inanga) and common bully (toitoi) need to thrive.

One of RiverLink’s main goals is to make Lower Hutt safe from major floods. This means widening the river channel, raising the height of stopbanks and making more space for floods under Melling Bridge. These big changes present us with opportunities. Greater Wellington Regional Council, Hutt City Council and the NZ Transport Agency are exploring how to maximise the benefits of working together to achieve our goals of better flood protection, transport and lifestyle for Lower Hutt.

Come see us at the RiverLink engagement container and have a play at the Riverbank Beach, join in our summer activities and learn more about RiverLink.

The station would need to move at least 250 metres and as much as 500 metres south of the current location. Moving the station would likely add 200 car parks, kiss and ride drop off spots, integrated bus and rail connections and better, safer access for cyclists and pedestrians. The added parking would help boost patronage numbers and fill some of the spare capacity currently available on the Melling line. RiverLink is exploring how to retain businesses currently near the station like coffee and childcare and attract more retail and residential development.

The reasons for shifting the railway station cut across the three main aspects of RiverLink: Making Places, flood prevention and the Melling intersection improvements. Close inter-agency collaboration ensures that RiverLink as a whole can maximise the opportunities created by moving the station.

Shifting the railway station to the south was first signalled by the Hutt City Council in the 2009 Making Places Strategy. Moving the railway station would make the city centre more accessible and attractive to businesses and residents.

The New Zealand Transport Agency is working on ways to improve the Melling intersection and connections to the western hill suburbs. They are also exploring how these improvements could be integrated with new stopbanks and a new bridge into the city centre. Melling railway station would need to be moved in order for there to be space for any intersection improvements to be built.

“As part of RiverLink, we are investigating improvements to the Melling intersection. The present location of the Melling railway station limits our ability to improve safety and travel reliability on State Highway 2 and to improve access to the Lower Hutt city centre,” says Emma Speight, the Transport Agency’s Director Regional Relationship Manager – Lower North Island.

The RiverLink project and Metlink are exploring moving the Melling railway station south of its current location. As part of our investigations, we recently looked at what moving the station would mean for current and future users of the station.