AA

The Wel­ling­tonis­tas received this email yes­ter­day & giv­en the import­ance of safe & effi­cent trans­port routes in & out of the region, we think it’s a good idea to pass it on to our read­ers to con­sider, and even make a sub­mis­sion if you so desire.

The Coastal High­way and Trans­mis­sion Gully

Dear Wel­ling­tonis­tas

The Great­er Wel­ling­ton Region­al Coun­cil is cur­rently con­sult­ing on the Coastal High­way North­ern access route. This con­sulta­tion is part of the form­al pro­cess to decide on future North­ern road access for the region.

The choice between the Coastal High­way and Trans­mis­sion Gully roads is one of the biggest road decisions facing motor­ists in the Wel­ling­ton region and will affect access into and out of Wel­ling­ton for dec­ades to come. The AA (Wel­ling­ton Dis­trict) believes it is import­ant that you, Wel­ling­ton AA Mem­bers, are giv­en the oppor­tun­ity to have your say.

You can make a sub­mis­sion on the West­ern Cor­ridor Plan by click­ing here. This will take you dir­ectly to the sub­mis­sion form on the Great­er Wel­ling­ton Region­al Coun­cil web­site.

There is no wrong way to make a sub­mis­sion, you can just say what you think.

Sub­mis­sions close at 5:00pm on Fri­day 4 Novem­ber 2005.

What the AA thinks:

The AA Wel­ling­ton Dis­trict Coun­cil will be mak­ing a sub­mis­sion in sup­port of the Trans­mis­sion Gully road. This sub­mis­sion will be avail­able for view­ing on the AA web­site from 4 Novem­ber 2005. We set out our reas­on­ing below.

We have been work­ing closely on behalf of Mem­bers with the rel­ev­ant decision makers to pro­mote and sup­port a pos­it­ive decision to build Trans­mis­sion Gully. It has not always been easy. Ini­tially costs for all options were bey­ond the resources avail­able to the region. The Gov­ern­ment then made extra funds avail­able, for improved North­ern access but these were only enough for the Coastal High­way option, and not for Trans­mis­sion Gully.

The Fin­ance Min­is­ter recently sig­nalled his sup­port for a staged approach for the devel­op­ment of the Trans­mis­sion Gully road with the North­ern sec­tion through to Paua­hatanui being con­struc­ted as phase 1. We had been advoc­at­ing for this option to be con­sidered for some time as an afford­able first stage solu­tion for the region.

The chart below com­pares the two roads. This is not a full com­par­is­on of the two roads options but high­lights some of the dif­fer­ences we believe are of interest to motor­ists.

Click here to view the chart.

*Costs quoted are the pre­lim­in­ary costs from the Trans­it New Zea­l­and con­sulta­tion doc­u­ment.

Thank you for your time, please feel free to for­ward this email to inter­ested friends and fam­ily.
Yours sin­cerely

John Chris­ti­an­son

Dis­trict Chair­man
WELLINGTON DISTRICT COUNCIL
The New Zea­l­and Auto­mobile
Asso­ci­ation Incor­por­ated