BNH received an enquiry from a member who regularly uses the bus between Albany and the CBD. They were asking about the designs on the walls and bridges. This is what Keelin Flynn, communications and engagement manager, Northern Corridor Improvements, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency told FYI.
The urban design for Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Northern Corridor Improvements project looks to the ancestral use of the wider area for safe passage and harvesting kai (food), whether by ara (tracks) or awa (water).
Design elements of the bridges, bridge barriers and retaining wall panels take the modern day traveller on a journey by foot, bicycle, bus or car and reconnect them to the ancestral landscape and Māori tradition.
Some design elements have been built and are visible as you travel on the SH1 Northern Motorway, with the remainder scheduled to be completed over the next 18 months. There are two different panel designs which feature on the concrete retaining walls:
Taenga (arrival) representing the north/ south arrival into Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). The panel design on the Albany Busway Bridge retaining wall is known as the pātiki design. It has been used to represent the different types of kai caught and transported on waka (canoe). Pātiki designs are based on the diamond shape of the flounder fish.
Nga Hau e Wha (navigation) shows wayfinding and orientation by star formations. The panel design on the Constellation Busway Bridge retaining walls shows the Tukemata/whatu (eyebrow/eye) design and is a tribute to Matariki. Matariki literally translates as the “eye of the gods” and is the Māori name for the Pleiades star cluster which appears in the sky at the time of Māori New Year.
