Queenstown Town Centre Street Upgrades

Key features include: 

• Lower Beach Street will be transformed into a shared space that enhances its existing retail, event and social function. 

• Upper Beach Street will remain pedestrian only however existing vehicle access (and via Cow Lane) will be maintained for deliveries and servicing of local business

• New paving that embeds  design elements to share local stories and history

• New bespoke lighting and street furniture that links to mana whenua value of 'Oraka' meaning rest and recuperation.  

• A combination of new and existing street trees  and plants

• New wayfinding signage

Upper Beach Street 

Lower Beach Street 

After seven months of investigating and replacing the network of underground services, lower Beach Street has new water, wastewater and stormwater pipes to service the town centre for many years to come.

The concrete has been poured and we’ve started laying the final surface of granite pavers. By Christmas the street will be paved and ready for a busy summer season. Some finishing touches will be completed in February next year.

Underground services are also now complete on Upper Beach Street so we can now start rebuilding.

A concrete base will be laid by Christmas and the street will be clean and clear for the summer holidays. The paving crew will return to complete the final surface from 24 January.

Upper and Lower Beach Street is closed while construction is underway.    We will reopen the street before Christmas for the summer holiday period. 

Access for pedestrians will be maintained throughout the project. 

The work will be noisy at times.  

We're incredibly grateful for the support and patience shown by Beach Street businesses over this time.   We will continue to work closely with you all to minimise and help you through this disruptive period.  

Key features include: 

• A 4m wide shared path connecting the town centre to the lakefront at Park Street

• A dedicated cycle path through Hotops Rise. 

• Widening the existing Horne Creek pedestrian bridge

• New street lighting and  furniture 

• New paving, new stone kerbs, stone setts at pedestrian crossings and exposed aggregate concrete footpaths.

• New  wayfinding signage

Park Street is on track to be largely completed ahead of Christmas with some finishing touches applied to the street in the new year.

Traffic management is in place on Park Street while construction is underway.    This will be cleared before Christmas.  

Access for pedestrians will be maintained throughout the project. 

The work will be noisy at times.  

We're incredibly grateful for the support and patience shown by Park Street residents and Ice Arena over this time.   We will continue to work closely with you all to minimise and help you through this disruptive period.  

We’ve been doing a lot of work to consider our options for the new cycle path along Hotops Rise.  Earlier in the year we pressed pause on this part of the project as we realised the new path would result in the removal of a large number of trees.  

Further safety analysis is underway on three alignment options for a dedicated cycle path connecting the Frankton Track to the Town Centre.

Part of the process is determining, with the community, a plan to replace any trees lost with a larger number of new predominantly native trees which will improve the long-term tree canopy of Queenstown Gardens.   

A paper is expected to go to Council for a final decision in December.  At that meeting, it’s the Councillors role to look at all aspects for a decision and take them into consideration, including community feedback and involvement, technical considerations, alignment with policies, plans and strategies and costs.

In the meantime, we’ve pulled together some FAQ’s on this part of the project which can be read below.     Or you can check out details of the community consultation we've run on the project.   

If you have any further questions, please get in touch  and we’ll provide an answer as soon as we can. 

The Brecon Street upgrade will provide new underground services and a generous footpath to provide a safe and welcoming experience for the thousands of people who visit that part of the town centre each year.   Key features will include: 

• A continuous 4-5m wide footpath   along the northern side of the street 

• An improved 4m wide footpath on the southern side to interface with new hotel developments and Lakeview

• New and existing street trees and plants.  

• Rationalising carparking on the southern side of the street

• Improvements near the Skyline building to prioritise pedestrian access and make pick-up / drop-off safer.  

• Lower Brecon Street to become a low speed, shared space prioritising walking and cycling. 

• New streetlighting and furniture to encourage social gathering.

• Improvements to the Brian Smith Reserve 

• Signalised intersection at Man / Brecon street

• New  wayfinding signage

Earlier in the year we did some investigations of the underground services and replaced a short section of gas pipe.

In May we began the construction of a large retaining wall that runs alongside Queenstown Cemetery. The purpose of the retaining wall is to build two generous paths that safely separate mountain bikers from pedestrians at the top of Brecon Street. The section of the wall being built by Kā Huanui a Tāhuna will be finished in November.

During the upgrade, Brecon Street will be closed to through traffic with access only available for pedestrians, business drop off and pick up and mobility parking.  This work is expected to take around one year to complete.    

Work on Brecon Street will stop between 24 December and 10 January 2022.

Key features include: 

• Upgrade to a shared, low speed environment that prioritises walking and cycling

• New paving that embeds design elements to share local stories and history

• New lighting and street furniture that links to mana whenua value of 'Oraka' meaning rest and re-cooperation 

• A combination of new and existing street trees  and plants

• New  wayfinding signage

The Rees Street upgrade will begin in February 2022.

We will meet with Rees Street business owners in November to talk through the construction programme.