A new one kilometre stretch of road has opened at Bremner Ridge.
Templeton Group has opened the short stretch of new road which links Flat Bush School Road to Redoubt Road via Michael Bosher Way, saving around 12 minutes of drive time each trip.
It also connects Tuscany Estate to the amenities of Flat Bush, including Ormiston Town Centre, a number of schools, public transportation and Barry Curtis Park.
By taking on this traffic, the road will also relieve congestion in adjoining suburbs.
The new road was built on the back of a massive earthmoving and engineering project which included a number of shear keys – a steep terrain construction methodology where densely packed earth is engineered to resist the force created by the lateral load from the soil.
One shear key, which supports the new road, is 156m wide and 200m deep and has a maximum height of 42m from road level to base.
A quarter of a million cubic metres of earth was excavated – around 25,000 truck movements, and construction required 175,000m3 of engineered fill at a cost of around $20m.
“This section of new road, though short, was critical to unlocking the potential of the Bremner Ridge site,” says Templeton founder Nigel McKenna.
“Successful developments are based on location, access amenity and community. With this road now complete, Bremner Ridge offers all of these, which is why we’ve already been able to sell 93 per cent of all lots.
“With the elevation tamed, Bremner Ridge now affords spectacular views across the city to Rangitoto, North Head, the Sky Tower and, in the distance, the Waitakere ranges.”
Roading is only part of Templeton’s investment in infrastructure at Bremner Ridge.
Through a cost share agreement with Watercare, it upgraded the 250mm supply main to Redoubt Road Reservoir, connecting the Redoubt Road Watermain to Flat Bush and providing an important connection for Watercare.
It also extended the Watercare wastewater network down Long Horn Drive (formerly McQuoid’s Rd), which allows for future development along that road.
Five hundred new homes
Templeton also increased the site’s yield in response to demand for more housing. The 42ha site was originally zoned for very low density, large lot residential development.
The original masterplan yielded 315 lots, with 58 lifestyle lots ranging from 900m2 to over 10,000m2 and 257 standard sections ranging from 300m2 to 900m2.
Templeton recognised that, at a time when Auckland is desperate for additional housing land within the developed city, zoning the entire area for very low-density housing represented a significant under-utilisation of a scarce land resource.
Accordingly, it applied for and was granted an integrated land use and subdivision consent to intensify the development so that it now yields 360 total sections with 60 lifestyle lots and 300 standard sections.
Templeton’s total development of Bremner Ridge and the adjacent project, Fairburn, represent more than 500 lots in total.
