Thorndon Quay revamp to continue despite petition, pipe issues

Thursday, 12 September 2024

The Thorndon Quay Hutt Road Collective has petitioned the council, seeking a halt to all roadworks until an independent review is complete.

The Wellington City Council has voted to push on with a revamp of Thorndon Quay despite a petition calling for a pause and review.

The project to put bus and cycle lanes down the quay, north of the city, was tied to the since-ditched $7.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving project. Then it transpired that there was $5.4m of must-do pipe work buried beneath the works.

Meanwhile, businesses have cried foul as they allege revenue is down hugely due to the works and more roadworks will be needed to fix the ageing pipes – some more than 100 years old.

A petition went to the council calling for a pause on the project and for a review of the pipes – which the council argues will add cost and time to the project. Nearly 2000 people signed the petition.

Businesses have been tried to delay the Thorndon Quay road works.

Council infrastructure manager Brad Singh told the the council’s environment and infrastructure committee on Thursday that future pipe work would not destroy the current work.

“We are not putting big lumps of concrete over the top of [pipes],” he said.

A Wellington Water map of used and disused Thorndon Quay pipes

This was strenuously denied by petitioner Paul Robinson who, in a break from the meeting, produced a map showing major in-use pipes directly under the works.

Councillors voted 13-5 to go ahead. Councillors Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Tony Randle, Nicola Young and Nureddin Abdurahman voted against.

Abdurahman stressed that his was a protest vote about the council not listening but he would have ideally voted for proceeding due to the cost the delay.