It’s just not cricket – flyover gets green light

17 August 2012

“It’s just not cricket,” said Wellington City Councillor and Mt Victoria resident Iona Pannett after this morning’s announcement that the New Zealand Transport Agency will press ahead with the much despised flyover around the Basin Reserve.

“At $90m for just 400m of new road, this will be the most expensive road in the country,” she said. The country cannot afford such an extravagant project.

“The current benefit cost ratio is marginal at best. It currently stands at around 1 which means that any cost overruns such as an $11m stand at the Basin will quickly erode the benefits.

“NZTA continues to use the failed model of predict and provide to plan for major roads at a time of peak oil and climate change,” said Cr Pannett.

“NZTA has consistently ignored public feedback which has opposed the flyover. Nearly 80% of submitters to the Ngauranga to Airport Strategic Study in 2008 objected to this project whilst NZTA’s own process showed that hundreds of people were critical of the proposal. The consultation process has been a sham with a pre-determined outcome.

“NZTA has failed to consider alternatives such as increased investment in public transport and basic travel demand mechanisms. Given that it is a sensitive area – home to a number of national institutions, schools and residents, building such an intrusive road just doesn’t make sense,” said Cr Pannett.

“The myth that the flyover will assist public transport, pedestrians and cyclists should be busted,” Cr Pannett said. “It is a disaster for all of these modes.

“The flyover will be a magnet for taggers and potentially criminals,” said Cr Pannett.

“The community will fight this proposal using every legal and political avenue possible,” said Cr Pannett “I very much hope that they will be successful,” she said.

ends

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