Transport planner gives NZTA Wellington plans a fail: ‘I just don’t think NZTA has tried’

Thursday, 20 November 2025

Transport planner and former Wellington City Councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman has concerns about the agency’s plan to have pedestrians and cyclists share a single pathway through the new Mount Victoria Tunnel.

Just as many traffic lights, problems for suburban traffic and existing problems unsolved – a professional transport planner has given government roading plans for Wellington a withering breakdown.

Former Wellington City councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman has studied Waka Kotahi NZTA’s traffic plans, released this week, in depth and found them lacking in multiple areas, not least the interaction between where NZTA and council roads meet.

All his criticisms were put to Transport and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, who did not respond, but NZTA said the feedback was what it was after in the coming weeks during consultation.

NZTA’s detailed designs this week showed a complete rethink of traffic around the Basin Reserve, major changes to roading in the eastern suburbs as well as the previously detailed second Mt Victoria and Terrace tunnels, and changes to Vivian St.

Calvi-Freeman said there were also problems with those staying exclusively on the government roads. Drivers between the Mt Victoria and Terrace tunnels would still negotiate six sets of traffic lights as they now did, while those travelling the opposite way would remain with eight sets.

“There is always a way. I just don’t think NZTA has tried hard enough,” he said.

READ MORE OF TOM HUNT’S JOURNALISM:

He had concerns about the agency’s plan to have pedestrians and cyclists share a single pathway through the new Mt Victoria Tunnel. He proposed an alternative: separate cycle and pedestrian paths beneath the roadway.

“It amazes me that NZTA thinks cyclists and the pedestrians are the same thing,” he said.

There were multiple points where he found issues between council and NZTA roads. The agency has promised to prioritise east–west traffic signals along Vivian St, where SH1 runs through the city.

But Calvi-Freeman argued that route was already prioritised ‒ and further changes would disadvantage north-south traffic on council roads, including for pedestrians, cyclists and buses.

He said the only real solution was to revive a decades-old plan: trench Karo Dr to carry all highway traffic through the city, and build a second Terrace Tunnel only after that.

He pointed to new choke points in the eastern suburbs of Hataitai and Kilbirnie, where some turns in and out of council roads would be blocked. A new interchange and flyover off Ruahine St would carry a large volume of traffic ‒ all of which would then funnel onto the suburban Moxham Ave.

Pro-tunnel Wellington City councillor Nicola Young said she was not qualified to talk about the NZTA designs but said the second Mt Victoria tunnel was “about 50 years overdue”.

Greater Wellington Green councillor Yadana Saw dubbed the plan “Roads of National taxpayer-funded vengeance” after Wellington Central and Rongotai – the two most-affected electorates – went Green in the last general election.

Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter said Calvi-Freeman was “absolutely right” that some trips would get longer.

NZTA system design national manager Robyn Elston said Wellington’s already-congested highway through the city would worsen as the population grew, hampering productivity and restricting economic growth.

The project would reduce bottlenecks and make trips faster. It would also encourage more cars onto the highway, taking the stress off local roads. It would alleviate current eastern suburb problem areas, Elston said.

“The proposed design has a similar number of traffic signals but achieves improved reliability and efficiency on the state highway corridor by reconfiguring the road space and optimising the traffic signal operations.”

The shared Mt Victoria tunnel path for cyclists and pedestrians was better than the status quo, Elston said.