The Local - Mt VictoriaThe Government’s transport agency Waka Kotahi/NZTA has managed to get a mega-tunnel proposal back on the table, after it was shelved by the previous Government.
The proposed long tunnel would start at the Terrace, bypass the inner city and stretch about 4 kilometres under Mount Victoria, emerging at Wellington Road. If built, it would be the country’s longest tunnel.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said in an interview with Radio New Zealand that NZTA encouraged Ministers to re-examine the idea.
“When we came into government NZTA said to us, ‘look, we’re doing this work on the Mount Victoria tunnel. We were doing work about four or five years ago on a potential long tunnel option but that was discontinued by the previous Government as their preference was light rail.’
“[NZTA] said we should put this option back on the table and we agreed.”
Brown said the proposal potentially provided much greater benefits than the Mount Victoria tunnel option.
“It has significant additional travel time benefits: instead of a 3 minute travel time benefit from Wellington through to the airport it has up to 15 minutes.
Although ambitious, Brown said the proposal was the solution to a number of Wellington’s congestion issues, and NZTA had presented a ‘compelling case’ as to why the project needed to be re-considered.
“It solves the Terrace Tunnel, it solves Aro Valley, it solves the Basin and it solves the Mt Vic tunnel, which are four major areas that need work done into the future, and it does it with one major project.”
Removing traffic through the city centre would enable better public transport options, walking and cycling, and urban intensification through the CBD, Brown said.
NZTA had now been asked to provide enough detail by the middle of the year for the Goverment to make a call on which proposal should be pursued further. That included whether the long tunnel proposal would need an exit at the Basin Reserve.
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