Chaos reigns over flyover

Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast has pre-empted a council decision later this year by saying that the flyover will almost certainly go ahead.

Prendergast says there are six options for the Basin Reserve area. "Four were for flyovers and two were at ground level," she says. "Urban designers and engineers have been attending workshops refining the physics of the flyover. They didn't think the ground-level options would work as well, as they took up huge amounts of land."

Council transport spokesman Andy Foster confirms this.

"It is council policy that we support the flyover," he says. "We see it as a necessary way of solving the congestion there. The flyover is the only way of delivering that separation of east-west, north-south traffic."

Deputy mayor Ian McKinnon, however, says the flyover construction has yet to be approved.

"We voted that we wanted a better road, but I don't think we voted on the flyover," he says. "There are three options, but they haven't reached that level of decision  certainly the council has not voted on the flyover."

He acknowledges that the flyover is an area of contention among Wellingtonians.

"I think some of my colleagues are opposed to it, but they are opposed to roads in general," he says.
Kent Duston, co-founder of the Save the Basin Trust, believes some councillors are intent on railroading the flyover through, irrespective of what Wellingtonians want.

"The agencies involved have not been listening," he says. "Seventy-nine per cent of submitters said it was a completely stupid idea. This smacks of pure arrogance."

He feels the council is split on the issue and points out that the New Zealand Transport Agency's application to demolish a group of buildings in the area to make room for the flyover was declined by the council. "If all of the council was so firmly behind the flyover, they would have given it the go-ahead," he says.

He has asked the agency how it reached the estimated cost of $33 million if plans had not been confirmed.

Mr Duston says he was informed by the agency that while preliminary development of the preferred option was under way, it was withholding the information under the Official Information Act.

"The only basis for withholding such information is when it is of a commercially sensitive nature," he says. "Unless contractors are under negotiation, I cannot see how this can be the case."

He says that if he does not receive the requested information soon, he will take it to the ombudsman.
Mr Duston says that if the council approves the flyover plan, the trust will explore avenues to oppose it, including taking it to the Environment Court.

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Scott Parsons   #1   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

I was born in and grew up in Wellington. However, for the past 20 years I have lived in Sydney and have made frequent trips back to Wellington to visit family. During many of these visits I have been to the Basin Reserve to watch a cricket match, the last being the Wellington/Auckland game over the Christmas holidays, when I was told of the flyover idea. Although I have not seen plans of the flyover design, I sat in the seats in front of the old stand and tried to imagine what the new flyover could look like. I could only imagine that a flyover would have a detrimental effect on this historic cricket ground.I ask the Wellington City Council not to build any type of flyover in the area of the Basin Reserve.

S Wilson   #2   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

If anyone bothers to look back as recent as 1992 they will find plans by the then Transit New Zealand for the then Tunnellink motorway extension which was meant to connect Mt Victoria Tunnel to the Terrace Tunnel. The flyover barely touches the Basin Reserve on the northeastern corner. It might be helpful if a journalist does some research, the land was long designated for this, and it's hardly new - the idea has existed since the 1960s.

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