Cross Valley Link construction could take 15 years
Thursday, 4 December 2025
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The construction of a long-awaited road linking Lower Hutt’s Seaview and State Highway 2 could be spread across more than a decade to prioritise the connecting four-lane highway between Petone and Grenada.
The dual-lane Cross Valley Link (CVL), the first details of which were released last Friday on the last page of the investment case for the 5.5km Petone to Grenada road (P2G), would function as a local road. It would start at an intersection with P2G, run along Wakefield St, cross a new 330m bridge over Te Awa Kairangi Hutt River and into White Line West.
Classified as a Road of National Significance, the CVL could be built in stages across 10-15 years “allowing for P2G to be built first”, the papers said. There would be new traffic lights at Wakefield St intersections with Hutt Rd, Victoria St and Fitzherbert St, as well as changes to the Randwick Rd and Whites Line East roundabout to open an exit to Whites Line West.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) said the timeframes listed in the investment case were subject to prioritising and funding decisions made by the Government. Both P2G and CVL remained in “pre-implementation” stage, including public engagement, geotechnical investigations and continuing design work.
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Transport Minister and local MP Chris Bishop said both CVL and P2G were vital to the Wellington region. Asked whether a 15‑year timeframe for the CVL was reasonable, he replied: “The Government is focused on building that long‑term pipeline. Not everything can be built at once.”
Labour’s Ginny Andersen, a former Hutt South MP, said the paper offered scant details on costings and the estimated construction time stretched beyond what National campaigned on. “Chris Bishop talks a big game on new roads, but for people in the Hutt Valley all we’re seeing is delays.”
NZTA’s investment case did not calculate costs to build CVL, but did say it would have a Benefit-to-Cost Ratio (BCR) of 2.0, assuming the Petone to Grenada road was built first, meaning the benefit brought by the road would be double that of its cost.
The agency withheld sections of the investment case on P2G’s costs, key risks and a tolling proposal.
Last estimates for CVL were $188 million, according to Hutt City Council planning documents, but former mayor Campbell Barry said in 2024 a lot more needed to be done to figure out the true cost. The Hutt City Council previously spent $1m on a feasibility study.
Also known as the East by West Connector, the concept of a dedicated link road from State Highway 2 to the industrial area of Seaview to divert heavy vehicle traffic away from Jackson St and the Petone Esplanade dated back to the 1960s and has kept dropping in and out of various local and regional district plans.
The council even conceded CVL would never be built in 2011 and instead spent $20m to upgrade Petone Esplanade.
In the aftermath of the Kaikōura earthquake in October 2017, then mayor Ray Wallace argued for the CVL again, saying Petone Esplanade would be out of action in a big earthquake in Wellington, cutting off the only road to the fuel storage tanks in Seaview and cripple the region’s fuel supply.
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