Subscribe to RSSAnother Wgtn Road Battle Looms
Another road development battle is looming in the Capital. And it’s close to the Greens’ heart.
A plan to ram a motorway through Hataitai may affect among others, Greens co-leader Russel Norman as he lives in Hataitai.
And it could be another big test for the Wellington’s Greens’ Mayor.
The NZTA plans to duplicate the Mt Victoria Tunnel and put a four lane motorway through Hataitai which Norman says would be bad for everyone.
He was responding to a report from the NZTA, showing 16 homes could be affected and parts of the town belt lost. He says it wouldn’t solve congestion, but it would hurt a vibrant inner Wellington suburb.
Looking towards Hataitai flickr.com/photos/4nitsirk/with/4817970752/
“Building motorways in urban areas never solves congestion,” said Dr Norman.
“It can make it worse by destroying the inner suburbs where people can still walk, cycle and take public transport to get around.
“Motorways lower property values and make it more attractive to live further out, resulting in more people driving into the city.
“The local community is very concerned about this potential motorway, as we saw at our public meeting in April where nearly 100 people turned out despite terrible weather.
“But the NZTA is being very coy and trying to keep the proposed design under wraps, presumably so the public doesn’t have an opportunity to oppose it.
“Wellington elected a mayor with a smart, green transport vision for Wellington. The transport minister and NZTA’s motorway builders need to listen to what the people really want,” said Dr Norman.
Photo credit: Flickr | 4nitsirk
7 Comments
There’s no motorway planned, but rather duplication of the existing road, and closure of some side streets. The upgraded road will still have intersections, sharp corners, and traffic lights, making it well short of motorway or even expressway standards.
Where’s the tram line connecting the CBD with the airport - funny how NZTA is so fixated with always ramming huge roads and motorways through. It’s sad because all we’re seeing is a repeat of Auckland’s past abd ongoing mistakes - however now we know what a terrible outcome we got, yet the powers that be seem intent on ignoring NZ’s awful history in urban planning.
Hmmm, not really a motorway being rammed through haitaitai, it is just turning the road into an Avenue…
But Mt Victoria is the resting place of a taniwha. Surely the local iwi will have something to say about running another road through it!
In the real world where there are some good things in even a Steven Joyce boondoggle, the double laning of the existing road through Hataitai, and the duplication of the Mt Vic Tunnel I’m going to come out and say it, I think is a good idea. The flyover however is such a stupid idea and will be a blight as soon as it is built. The linking of a duplicated Mt Vic Tunnel with the extant bits of the inner city bypass should be built underground, and what is now Buckle Street should be cut and cover tunnelled in front of the National War Memorial and under the existing Buckle Street on the north side of the Basin. A park at ground level in front of the National War Memorial will be such a great thing for Wellington, whilst a shitty flyover will ruin it. Surface traffic going around the basin and carrying the light rail tracks can be unmolested by the SH1 traffic passing underneath. If that solution can’t be built in its entirety then cheap-ass half measures shouldn’t be built at all.
As others have said, its not a motorway. Its simply 4-laning an existing 2 lane road. Living in the Eastern suburbs, I do think this is worth doing. But only with the proviso that there are good cycling and walking links provided. At the moment, the footpath through the Mt Vic tunnel is narrow, noisy and smelly. Its appalling and I avoid it for this reason. Any new tunnel would need a wider footpath and some sort of screening from traffic. Cycling links to the tunnel would be needed too. At the moment there is nothing.
beware Malcolm of Green-Washing.
If NZTA wanted to build a quality pedestrian/cycle link they could do it for a few percent of the cost.
They are just trying to get good publicity for a terrible plan.
Overall the roading project will make both sides of Mt Vic tunnel far more unfriendly to pedestrians.