$830m puts Transmission Gully viability in doubt

Skyrocketing costs raise serious questions over the future of Transmission Gully, says local National MP Roger Sowry.

Transit New Zealand today released an estimated cost of $830 million for the proposed four-lane highway.

Transit also acknowledged that even if the project were given the go-ahead today it would take at least 10 years for construction to begin.

Mr Sowry says 10 years ago the estimated cost of Transmission Gully was $245 million; today it’s $830 million; in 10 years time it will be well over $1 billion.

“The community needs to be asked whether they are prepared to wait for more than 10 years or whether they want the existing route’s up-grade to be completed instead.

“I have long supported Transmission Gully, but this figure raises serious doubts about the project’s viability.

“The Government has put Wellington’s roading problems on the back-burner, and it’s dithering has cost the region too much for too long”

“It’s time the community had their say now that these new facts have been laid on the table”, says Mr Sowry.

© Scoop Media

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>>