The original plan for Skypath by the Skypath Trust was to attach a lightweight structure underneath the southbound (Eastern) clip-on lane of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Skypath was to be a 1300m long shared walking and cycling pathway suspended from the Auckland Harbour Bridge crossing the Auckland Harbour providing walking and cycling access linking Auckland and the North Shore.
Airey involvement in the project began in 1990 and continued until approximately 2019. Airey successfully designed a light weight composite structure to be suspended below the bridge. The original suspended composite design was costed at $50 Million with private backers chasing a PPP to build and run Skypath at no cost to the Council. Resource Consent was obtained for the original design before the project unfortunately came to an end following Waka Kotahi taking over the project.
Airey worked closely with Joint Venture partners including; Getacross (Skypath), Reset Urban Design, Auckland Council, NZTA, ATEED, AT, TDG (Traffic Design Group), Gurit, Core Builders, Heart of the City, Copeland and Associates – Architects.
Our involvement included inputs with the Civil, Structural and fire engineering components with approximately 75 – 80% of total project structural design input being undertaken by Airey with the remainder carried out by sub consultants providing inputs into areas such as composite material design and vibration assessments.
