Tunnel reprieve for Mt Victoria?

Tunnel reprieve for Mt Victoria?

Mt Victoria residents are still waiting to hear whether the bulldozers and tunnelling equipment will be rolling in to build a new tunnel through the maunga – or the machinery will head elsewhere.

For years, Wellington has been expecting another tunnel to be built through Mt Victoria, next to the existing tunnel, to ease a bottleneck of traffic around the Basin Reserve.

A pilot tunnel was drilled in 1972 from Paterson Street to Taurima Street in Hataitai, to investigate the technical feasibility of a second tunnel, but the proposal was eventually shelved in 1981 due to costs.

A parallel or diagonal tunnel was consulted on as of part of the Let’s Get Wellington Moving project, but this was shut down by the National Government at the end of 2023.

However, the long-awaited tunnel appeared to be getting closer to becoming a reality when the incoming National-led Government promised to get it underway within their first term of government.

The project made it onto the Government’s list of 149 projects included in the one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill.  However the listing, aimed at improving SH1 between the Terrace Tunnel and Kilbirnie, allowed for either ‘a second Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve improvements’, or ‘a long tunnel that bypasses the central city’.

Part of Paterson Street in Mt Victoria would likely disappear if the original idea of a parallel tunnel goes ahead. 

But Ministers now seem to favour the long tunnel, which would bypass the inner city, and run 4 kilometres underground from The Terrace through to Wellington Road. 

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop has talked up the benefits.

“We campaigned as you know on building a parallel tunnel, right next door to the current Mt Victoria tunnel, but a lot of people have said to us, you know what, you should do it all in one fell swoop. 

“Because if you do Mt Vic you’ve got to do the Basin [Reserve], you’ve got to do undergrounding of some form around Aro, and you’ve got to do the Terrace.”

A long tunnel would shave 15 minutes off a trip to the airport, according to estimates, Bishop said.  But it would also have urban development advantages.

“The other point I’d make to you is that it allows Wellington central to be the liveable city that we all want it to be.  It’s really hard to have walking and cycling and parks and urban development through that part of Wellington, when SH1 runs down the middle of it.

“So I reckon you’ll see significant value uplift in that part of Wellington as a result of taking traffic away from the central city and it also means that you take traffic off the quays, freeing up the quays for better bus priority.”

In September NZTA officials provided advice to Transport Minister Simeon Brown on three options - a parallel or diagonal second Mt Victoria tunnel and a long tunnel. 

Although Brown had earlier indicated a decision would be made in the middle of the year, at the time of writing he has yet to announce which tunnel would go ahead.