Fort Street area upgrade

Background | About the area | The draft design | Design features | Have your say

Background

Artist impression of the proposed design.

Six streets in the Fort Street area are to be transformed into an attractive destination as part of Auckland City Council's CBD streetscapes upgrade programme.

The streets selected for upgrade as part of this project include Fort Street, Fort Lane, Jean Batten Place, Gore and Commerce streets (between Fort and Customs streets) and Shortland Street (between Queen Street and Jean Batten Place).

View an image gallery of the draft design

The upgrade aims to create a lively, people focused destination that reflects the area's rich cultural and geographic history. Areas of shared space, new artworks, interesting design features, seating, vegetation, lighting and high quality stone paving are proposed to create an attractive, stylish destination.

The opportunity to provide feedback on the draft designs for the Fort Street area upgrade have now closed. Auckland City Council is now reviewing the feedback received.

Planning the upgrade

In planning the upgrade, we asked nearby businesses, property owners, residents and users of the street what they value about the Fort Street area and what their key priorities were for upgrading. We heard that priorities for improvement in the area were:

wider and better quality footpaths
more planting, vegetation and trees
a cleaner more attractive street environment
better lighting and security.

This feedback helped develop the project's design objectives which aim to:

provide greater pedestrian priority throughout the area and more space for people
create a distinctive and popular destination
improve spaces that support businesses and residents, and provide opportunities for the Fort Street area to be a popular destination in the CBD
better connect the area with the surrounding network of streets
create high quality, attractive and durable streets that contribute to a sustainable and maintainable CBD.

This project is part of a 10-year programme to transform CBD streets and open spaces and create a great city. The cost of upgrading the Fort Street area will be about $22.99 million and is funded by the CBD targeted rate.

Time line

December 2008	Planning and design phase
September 2009	Public consultation on the draft design
December 2009	Final design considered for approval by Council's Arts, Culture and Recreation and Transport Committees Details of the final design sent to those who requested additional information
November 2009 to June 2010	Further design
May 2010	Preparation and planning for construction Discussions with property owners, residents and others on construction programme
August 2010	Phase one construction anticipated to commence
July 2011	Phase one construction anticipated to be completed
November 2011	Phase two construction anticipated to commence
December 2012	Phase two construction anticipated to be completed

Note: these dates may change over the course of the project.

Published September 2009