Awaiting response

I absolutely support Transmission Gully.  The current SH1 is at the bottom of an unstable hill (bewteen Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki) while the main trunk raiilway line is at the top!  In the event of a major disaster that doesn\'t make sense in the 21st century . We must have an alternative to that - Transmission Gully is it.

No, it should not go ahead.

The Transmission Gully Highway project should be halted…the billion dollar project will have significant impact on the ecology of local streams and the Pautahunui Inlet, and was a misallocation of road capacity, Green Party Regional Councillor Paul Bruce said today.

\"I am disturbed that the Wellington Project was still full steam ahead,\" said Cr Bruce.  
\"The upgrade of rail and rising fuel prices will soon take cars and freight off the road and will effectively end increases in traffic.\"

Environment Minister Nick Smith has referred a plan change to a Board of Inquiry of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to speed up process on the highway, but Cr Bruce noted that recreational freshwater fisheries and indigenous fish water habitats were threatened unless there was a more careful consideration of the issues than the proposed Plan Change.  Over 5.5 million cubic metres of earthworks or 550,000 truck loads of rock and soil are also likely to lead to further sedimentation of the Inlet and Porirua Harbour.

\"Express ways will also feed more high speed vehicles into congested Wellington streets, making a mockery of the recently launched Traffic Safety program, \" added Cr Paul Bruce. By contrast, upgrades of rail can provide an earthquake and sea level rise proof alternative to new roads, as well as decreasing greenhouse emissions, he noted.

Yes.  We need this investment for a variety of reasons - resilience of the roading network being a major one.

Awaiting response YES

Kelly

There is no question any longer that transmission Gully will go ahead assuming it gets a resource consent. My position has always been that we need to rehabilitate the western train corridor to enable us to see what its maximum carrying capacity is before building another motorway. We haven\'t reached that stage yet.

Chris Laidlaw

Yes, although we have a long way to go before we\'ll be driving through it.

Yes - 1) We are considering the main north-south route for the nation, for most of our inter-regional and inter-island freight and passenger trips. The alternative coastal route will become less and less secure and reliable over this century - so it\'s a resilience issue of national significance;

2) As well as being less reliable and probably more costly in the long run, constructing the coastal route alternative will destroy significant communities along the way, especially Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay;

3) Of course the public transport network (ie rail route in this case) also needs upgrading but it is not an either/or issue, it\'s a \"which is more immediate?\" issue - and the road is more immediate. Evidence for this: the road has been closed down for up to a day a couple of times this decade - result: holiday chaos over half the North Island, and freight delays to South Island. The rail has also been closed for similar periods. Result : freight and passenger transport went by road.  

This decision has been made.  The bigger questions for Wellington are how we can provdied for more efficient and affordable public transporrt and deal with the North/South - East/West peak hour traffic congestion at the Basins Reserve.  We need sensible solutions that are sympatheic to the local surrounds and give priority to walking and cycling.