Realignment and extension of Ernie Mays Street
Mid to late 2025 - TBC
- Northcote
- In Progress
An important part of Northcote's Town Centre redevelopment.
Ernie Mays Street is being realigned and extended to Lake Road, in two stages, to become Northcote’s main street and bus route. It’s one of many projects to transform Northcote’s Town Centre, to make it an even better place to live, work, shop and do business.
What's happening?
Ernie Mays Street is a short road that currently provides access to a car park, by College Road, and a service lane for local shops and eateries.
As part of the transformation of the town centre, the road will be repositioned to directly align with Deuxberry Avenue and extended in two sages to Lake Road, to edge the new Northcote shopping centre – Northcote Central (expected to be constructed from 2027). See here for more information.
The street extension will be completed in two stages to minimise disruption to the town centre.
Stage one
This is expected to start from mid-2025, and will extend the road from College Road to the corner, near Te Ara Awataha -- Northcote’s new greenway.
Stage one will be completed in time to provide easy access to the new multi-purpose community hub, being developed on the Northcote Library site.
To enable stage one to happen, the Norman King Building, next to Northcote Library, will be sustainably deconstructed in early 2025. Rather than simply demolishing the Norman King Building (shown in the photos below), any parts of it that can be reused will be repurposed to minimise the amount of material sent to landfill. Find out more here. This supports Northcote’s aim to be a zero-waste community.
Stage two
This will extend the street through to Lake Road. We do not currently have a construction start date for this.
Key features
Once completed, key features of the new Ernie Mays Street include:
- Improved interconnectedness. The street will provide easy access to Northcote Central, the new community hub (on the Northcote Library site), an upgraded Puāwai Cadness Reserve and plaza (in front of the hub), and the new town centre section of Te Ara Awataha, which will complete Northcote’s new greenway. Plus, it will be on the bus route, to give bus users easy access to the transformed town centre.
- Safety features. Two pedestrian crossing between Pearn Place and the new community hub, and by College Road, will make it safer for pedestrians to cross the road.
- More effective drainage. Flooding has been a significant problem in the past, so there will be improved drainage and planted swales (channels) in the middle of the road, to treat and better manage run-off stormwater and prevent flooding.
- Improved environment. There will be trees and plants to make the street look attractive, while providing environmental benefits, to help reduce climate change.
Timing
The Norman King Building is due to be sustainably deconstructed early in 2025, to enable the construction of Ernie Mays Street to go ahead in two stages. The first stage will start from around mid to late 2025.
There will be disruption during construction. We will work to ensure that this is kept to a minimum as much as possible. More information will be provided nearer the time.