Christchurch Airport overbridge - the decorative arches

Forums › Travel (planes, train, cruise) › Christchurch Airport overbridge - the decorative arches - lovely or an expensive folly?

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amiga500

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#1778796 9-May-2017 21:44

Re. the Emirates Skyway. The day I went on it I had the car to myself & most of the other cars I saw were empty. It is a fantastic ride the best gondola I have been on. At the top you are about 300 feet above the Thames.

cadman

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#1778945 10-May-2017 10:04

stormcloud:

It's the gateway to the city...

Buzzword alert. Every road toward the city is a 'gateway'.

Personally I think it's a waste of taxpayer money. I'm all for interesting and purposeful engineering but not just plonking some functionless ridiculous structure somewhere just for the sake of it.

Fred99

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#1779204 10-May-2017 18:04

I think it looks great - and as part the overall project the cost is probably peanuts.

One thing does bother me with the rendering above - it looks like an invitation to scale for fun just because it's there, or to scale to spray it with your tag - as high as possible. I suspect they'll be adding a razor wire barrier which is going to disrupt the clean lines.

rb99

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#1779208 10-May-2017 18:22

amiga500:

Re. the Emirates Skyway. The day I went on it I had the car to myself & most of the other cars I saw were empty. It is a fantastic ride the best gondola I have been on. At the top you are about 300 feet above the Thames.

Exactly. Completely wasted on London - this is the view you want from 300 feet...(its the best I could find on interweb anyway)

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tehgerbil

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#1779287 10-May-2017 19:55

Eh, council didn't pay for this, NZTA did as it's a State Highway btw.

I like it.

It's different.

Doesn't seem to be too faffy- Windy Wellington anyone?..

It's not too complicated - it's seemingly not holding up building the rest of the overbridge.

It doesn't appear to need ridiculous maintenance costs - no moving parts, nowhere for birds to nest, nowhere for water to pool and not weight bearing it would appear.

I can see it being used to string banners for a suitable event, or have some funky looking lights colouring it.

amiga500

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#1899660 12-Nov-2017 16:12

The overbridge is open to traffic as of today & I took a little drive to try it out. Yesterday they had an open day for people to walk along the new overbridge. While it could be criticised for being less than original - there are similar arches at London Heathrow, & LAX (I think), it does look very nice. And just before sunset the arches look fantastic.

Also interesting is the fact that the overbridge has opened four months early & under budget. And unlike some other projects in Christchurch, open means open, with traffic flowing in both directions.

Dingbatt

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#1899689 12-Nov-2017 18:05

How long before someone posts a picture standing on top of it? And how long after that before a copycat falls off it?

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Behodar

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#1899695 12-Nov-2017 18:10

rb99: Exactly. Completely wasted on London - this is the view you want from 300 feet...(its the best I could find on interweb anyway)

Hey, that place looks familiar!

Goosey

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#1899757 12-Nov-2017 20:07

Dingbatt: How long before someone posts a picture standing on top of it? And how long after that before a copycat falls off it?

Will be a bit hard to get onto that... its a decent height to require a ladder. If you went to that trouble, chances are the airport security patrols will be there before you had a chance to scramble and cops wouldnt be too far away.

ps.. yad need suction cups to climb it. Pretty steep.

sen8or

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#1910640 29-Nov-2017 16:54

I think its nice how they installed some air conditioning ducting to help heat the city as you fly in......

nzkiwiman

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#1910864 30-Nov-2017 09:16

I was up in Christchurch last week, completely forgot to head to the Airport to see this or the new motorway

Pretty sure they are not going anywhere though, so next time I travel I shall go visit.

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