Transit New Zealand Scores Own Goal

Transit NZ scored an “own goal” at the resource consent hearing yesterday by unveiling a plan that will carve up Victoria Park for motorway extensions, Street Race Supporters Club spokesman Klaus Sorensen said today.

At the V8 resource consent hearing Transit tabled plans of the future designation it would seek for the addition of two lanes on the western side of the Victoria Park flyover, or alternatively the replacement of the flyover with a brand new bridge type structure.

Yet to get Auckland City Council approval and before concluding any consultation or agreements, Transit’s proposal called the West Side Widening Option slices through the western side of Victoria Park.

They described the existing viaduct bridge as being in need of a major retrofit as it is suffering from “concrete cancer” (alkali aggregate reactivity) and this is the Transit solution to this problem. They plan to lodge their application later this year.

The area required by Transit to be designated motorway for the construction is a corridor that quadruples the size of the existing roadway system through Victoria Park. Some major properties are clearly going to be affected for a project Transit said would take two to three years to complete, Mr Sorensen said.

These include the Victory Church, the New World Supermarket and the Victoria Park Markets. The plan calls for the relocation of the Victoria Park Bowling Club and will cause long-term serious dislocation for park users.

This plan is a major reason for Transit’s opposition to the 2006 Street Race, which will affect the area for only one working day (a Friday) and a weekend during the April school holidays.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>