Update on Willis Street Upgrade
Willis Street will soon be as well paved as the rest of the Golden Mile.
We're replacing the asphalt footpaths, installing new pipes to carry fibre optic and other cables, and creating another safe crossing point at Chews Lane.
We have already repaved the trickiest sections around the two bus stops and expect to have most of the work on the Chews Lane side finished by early June. The remaining work on the other side, as far Boulcott Street, will be done in stages over the next couple of months.
We'd like to thank retailers, residents, pedestrians and bus users for their patience so far and ask everyone to bear with us a little longer. As well as daytime work, there will be more night work going on over the next two weeks, most of it near the State Insurance Building in lower Willis Street.
This is necessary because the footpath and road are narrow here and we want to make sure people can get to businesses during the day. We're aware people live in this area and will do our best to keep disruption to a minimum but the work may be noisy at times.
Council Infrastructure Director Stavros Michael says the work is taking a bit longer than expected because of the complexities associated with working around the multitude of underground services.
"The good thing is that we, and other service providers including Wellington Electricity, have taken the opportunity to upgrade some services as the work has progressed. This coordinated approach has increased the amount of work going on but should hopefully mean less disruption for pedestrians and traffic in the future and more reliable and resilient services."
Pedestrians can still get to all businesses at all times but should take extra care where work is happening and use safe crossing points. The whole area will be finished and looking great by the end of July at the latest.