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 stages 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 meet where Te Ara Awataha - Northcote’s new greenway - will be extended around the town centre, starting in mid-2025.

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.

Future Northcote Town Centre

Norman King Building

Norman King Building

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:

Interconnectedness. The street will become the new main street and bus route through the town centre, and key pedestrian entrance to Northcote Central from Te Ara Awataha – Northcote’s new greenway –- and the new community hub (on the Northcote Library site). With the Norman King Building no longer there, there will be improved visibility of the future public facilities in this area – the hub, the upgraded Puāwai Cadness Reserve and plaza (in front of the hub), and the new town centre section of Te Ara Awataha.
Safety features. There will be three controlled crossing points and five uncontrolled crossing points to make it easy for pedestrians to cross the road.
More effective drainage. Flooding has been a significant problem in the past for the library, so there will be improved drainage and planted swales (channels) in the middle of the street, to treat and better manage stormwater and prevent flooding.
Improved environment. There will be a central planted swale and trees on each side of the street to make the street look attractive, while providing environmental benefits, to help reduce climate change. Street furnishings will also improvement the environment, particularly for pedestrians.

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.