Subscribe to RSSWellington Coast Expressway Progress
The big expressway project around the coast of Wellington took another step today with the major local council “buying in.”
Kapiti Coast District Council today adopted a set of objectives for membership of the Sandhills Expressway Alliance that is being established by NZTA.
The 11 objectives were passed with some fine tuning.
Mayor Jenny Rowan said the setting of objectives was an important step towards seeking a positive outcome for local residents from the NZTA driven project.
“The proposed expressway is not what we envisaged for our district. However, it has become very clear that the full weight of central government is behind the expressway concept.
“Given that, my council has decided it is better if we are ‘inside the tent’ where we will be able to lobby on behalf of our residents for an outcome that achieves improvements for both local and national road users.”
Ms Rowan said council’s membership of the alliance, however, came with conditions.
“We have gone to our constituents and sought their advice over the kind of outcomes they want. We think these objectives are sensible and take into account across-district travel, the importance of access to town centres, public transport links, cultural and environmental issues.”
Ms Rowan said council understood Government’s keenness to push on with the project, but she was equally mindful of the need to get Council and the community’s aspirations on the table.
“This is a major project that carries huge implications for the future shape and health of our community. It is important that all the participants are open and clear about their aspirations from the start.”
A resolution put that Popular Avenue be used as the southern entrance if the Expressway proceeds, was lost after several councillors argued that not enough information was available to make such a decision at this stage.
NZTA says the tender evaluation process for the alliance is well underway and it expects the successful tenderers next month after which the alliance will be formed.
The step after that was for the alliance to release an indicative timetable of work.
1 Comments
It’s great to see that although they oppose the expressway, they don’t make a tantrum when they arent listened to.