New tunnels but still seven sets of lights

Monday, 11 November 2024

Seven sets of traffic lights, six on Vivian St alone, stand in the route of Transport Minister Simeon Brown's solution to Wellington traffic woes.

Seven sets of existing traffic lights between two new Wellington tunnels are set to cause headaches for Transport Minister Simeon Brown – and then, $3 billion or so later, commuters.

Brown recently revealed his preferred solution for Wellington’s transport issues. It replaces the previous government’s $7.4 billion project which featured a new tunnel, light rail, and cycle and pedestrian improvements.

Brown’s car-centric solution is a new duplicate car tunnel beneath The Terrace, with indicative Waka Kotahi NZTA drawings showing a direct route down Vivian St, onto Kent Tce, then through a second duplicate car tunnel beneath Mount Victoria.

It came after the government spent $1.6 million on investigating a long-tunnel beneath the city before ditching it and going for two shorter tunnels smack in the middle of Green Party heartland.

Greater Wellington Regional councillor Thomas Nash says the Vivian St issues are significant.

That indicative north-to-east route follows the current route through the central city where drivers have seven sets of traffic lights to contend with - where Vivian crosses Willis St, Victoria St, Cuba St, Taranaki St, Tory St, and Cambridge and Kent terraces, before a final set on Kent Tce north of the Basin Reserve.

Brown and Waka Kotahi NZTA were asked how they planned to address this issue. Neither had responded before deadline.

The only clue to how this would be managed when Brown announced the tunnels last week was the promise of “wider network improvements” on State Highway 1 through the city.

Green transport spokesperson and Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter MP says the tunnels will feed a known bottleneck.

Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash, of the Green Party, said there was no feasible way to avoid Vivian St and the “significant” bottleneck problems that would create were recognised when the government started looking at a long tunnel to avoid the city centre.

The plan was a “political decision before a business case has been done”, which was a recipe for failure, he said. The government recently announced a bill to allow congestion charging and Nash wanted to know what modelling had been done with the planned route going through an area earmarked for these charges.

Green transport spokesperson and Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter, who is staunchly opposed to a new tunnel into her electorate, said the project would cost taxpayers about $3b and amounted to two new tunnels feeding a known bottleneck – the city.

“It's madness to say we can't afford to invest in rail or the inter-island ferries, but then commit billions for less than 2km of one extra car lane in Wellington,” she said.

The plan meant north-to-east traffic would hit “stop lights and bottlenecks” through the city, she said.

“Ultimately, the only way to improve travel times, clean up the air, protect the climate, and make the city liveable and attractive is to invest substantially in public transport and rail, make the streets welcoming places for people walking or biking, and bring in congestion charging.”

Wellington City councillor Tony Randle, who is in favour of the tunnels, confirmed the current plan would not avoid the Vivian St “bottleneck”.

Trenching – putting Vivian St in a ditch below ground with cross roads going over the top – was probably not feasible through could potentially be done on less-crucial roads such as Abel Smith St or Webb St.

But he hoped that once the two tunnels were built a third would eventually be bored beneath the city centre, almost joining the two tunnels.