Transmission Gully: After five years and multiple delays, unknowns just keep stacking up

Monday, 29 June 2020

Construction of Transmission Gully on a quiet section near Battle Hill Regional Park.

Reflecting on his series about Transmission Gully, reporter Joel Maxwell gets to grips with the knowns and unknowns of the billion-dollar road.

The weirdest thing about Transmission Gully is that the more time passes, the less we know about it.

It is perhaps fitting for a road that's been mooted for a century: after five years of construction, there are more unknowns about the project than at the beginning.

The Transmission Gully motorway north of Wellington was due to open in late 2020.

Currently, we do not know when our billion-dollar road will open.

The Waitangirua link road that leads to Transmission Gully from the Porirua suburb.

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Housing developments in Waikanae on the Kāpiti Coast are growing with the building of Transmission Gully,

Currently, we do not know how much extra money, on top of the extra already being paid, is needed to get the road finished.

Currently, we do not know the status of the relationship between the Wellington Gateway consortium contracted to deliver and maintain Transmission Gully, its builder CPB-HEB, and the New Zealand Transport Agency.

Porirua Mayor Anita Baker has heard that Transmission Gully might not open till late 2022.

We do know the road was meant to open in April, then May, then November, then 'well into 2021' according to the agency.

We do know the agency agreed to pay an additional $190 million, then an additional $14m, to keep the project going. This after it was delayed by the likes of the Kaikōura earthquake and Covid-19.

Northbound traffic crawls along State Highway 1 before Pukerua Bay. (File photo)

We do know that this wasn't how the original agreement - a private-public partnership - was expected to work. According to that agreement, we would only start paying for the road once it opened. We would pay about $125m annually to the consortium for the 25 years of the contract - once again, only when the project was finished and open. The road would cost a 'net-$850m' (in 2014 dollars) to build. The consortium would pay up front to design and build the road.

We do know the agency is in discussions with Gateway and CPB-HEB over an opening date and funding and penalties for the project. We know they have been in discussions for months - after the lockdown closed the project during valuable summer construction.

We know none of the parties will discuss the discussions, but strains appear to be showing.

We know the project could be substantially delayed: Porirua mayor Anita Baker said the new date could be late 2022, according to a person employed on the project.

We know there has been uncertainty over the jobs of workers on the project - many of whom have come from countries such as the Philippines.

We know the mayors of Porirua and Kāpiti, Baker and K Gurunathan, want the agency, or the Government, to look at ways of putting in more cash to get the road built.

We know we need it. Transmission Gully is a 27-kilometre link in a chain of four-lane roads from Ōtaki to the Terrace Tunnel.

We know the first $630m section of the Kāpiti expressway opened in 2015, and the second $330m section is delayed but set to open next year. Without Transmission Gully they would feed into the suffocating road between Paekākāriki and central Porirua. Traffic would only arrive more quickly to delays.

We know people living around the project are waiting for certainty. Some, such as those living in Pukerua Bay, will get their community back. The traffic volume of about 26,000 vehicles a day will plunge to about 5500 once Transmission Gully opens, and their road becomes a pleasant backwater.

We know people living around link roads in Porirua suburbs want certainty about how their communities will adapt and grow around increased traffic. Some bought years in advance to gain access to the new road.

We know with absolute certainty the region in general just wants its road built. This, at least, has never changed.