Can National start the second Mt Vic Tunnel as quickly as they say?

Friday, 8 September 2023

National hopes to solve the chronic congestion at the Basin Reserve by getting works underway by 2026 at the latest

National has announced that it will start work on a second Mt Victoria Tunnel for Wellington and Basin Reserve upgrades in its first term. But is that realistic or just an entry on National’s election season wishlist?

The section of State Highway 1 remains highly sensitive after the Basin Reserve flyover project failed to gain resource consent through both National’s own fast-tracking process and, subsequently, in the High Court.

The death of the flyover also meant a re-think of the second Mt Victoria tunnel, which was announced by then Transport Minister Steven Joyce in 2009 as part of the Roads of National Significance scheme.

Despite that, National Party infrastructure spokesperson Chris Bishop said the current proposal was world’s apart.

“The Basin Reserve Flyover was a highly contentious proposal. There's now quite a degree of consensus around the solution at the Basin and so I don't think that is the issue that it was.”

National Party infrastructure spokesperson Chris Bishop announced the project as part of National’s Transport For The Future plan revealed in July.

The solution proposed is the preferred option found by Let’s Get Wellington Moving last year – one of the few things National plans to quietly retain as it scraps the billion dollar transport initiative.

The project consists of both a second Mt Victoria Tunnel and a redesign of the Basin Reserve – turning the roundabout into a two-way street and extending the Arras Tunnel. Traffic travelling westbound from the Mt Vic Tunnel will pass around the northern end of the Basin, rather than the south.

Bishop said the key to making it happen was to create a new class of consent applications through the Resource Management Act called Major Infrastructure Priorities.

Let’s Get Wellington Moving’s plans for the Basin Reserve involve moving westbound traffic to the north end of the reserve, abolishing the notoriously congested roundabout.

“We’ll essentially have a fast track consent process and a time frame of a year or less to get the consents done. So we're confident that can be consented.

“We've been talking about and planning a second Victoria tunnel for the better part of the last 30 years in Wellington. There have been various proposals worked up and an enormous amount of work has gone into it so the time for debate and discussions is over. It’s time to start building it.”

While LGWM’s preferred option was a light rail system to run from the city centre to Island Bay, the National Party wants to scrap that in favour of upgrades to bus infrastructure.

Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash said they were prepared for any fast tracking of the project.

“As a council, we're happy with the idea of accelerating these projects but the disruption from boring a new tunnel through Mount Victoria would be very significant.

National plans to scrap the plans for a Light Rail system running from the CBD to Island Bay via Newtown and the Basin Reserve.

“It'd be much better to do those improvements around the Basin Reserve and get moving on mass transit before starting to dig a massive hole through both sides of Mount Victoria. Because you might find that when the mass transit is built, further road upgrades would be wasting money.”

Nash also said a bus rapid transport (BRT) system would restrict capacity compared to light rail, constraining the amount of new housing that the system could serve.

“It's a question of priorities. Do we want to drive housing investment that would allow more people to live in Wellington close to where they work or do we want a more car-focused society where people have to rely on driving to and from work every day?”

The last road tunnel built by the National Party was the Waterview Connection extension of the Southwestern Motorway in Auckland.

The dual three-lane motorway tunnels were built in part to solve a similar problem by replacing the congested route through the suburban streets Epsom and Royal Oak between the city centre and the Airport.

The old route along Queenstown Rd, Pah Rd, Manukau Rd, and Gillies Ave passed by several large schools, causing chaos as school-run traffic and airport traffic collided.

The project came close to starting in National’s first term, with enabling works starting months after the 2011 election in January of the following year.

However, it wasn’t until 2013 that the tunnel boring machine - nicknamed Alice - started digging its way underneath Avondale.

The project was completed in 2017.