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Posted by Rod in Travel at 8:54 pm on Sunday, 18 February 2007
Drove out of Wellington twice in the last two nights.
There was a 20 minute delay at Mana, because the T2 lanes weren’t operating. 2 cars were parked.
It took 90 minutes to get up to Otaki, where there was a large southbound queue. How much money have they spent ? It’s no faster now than it was 10 years ago.
If I was the boss, this is what I’d do:
- Make Mana four lanes all of the time. No car parks. Scrap the T2. The residents must expect it. Twenty people hold up tens of thousands every day.
- Drag some dirt off the hill between Pukerua Bay and Paekakiriki, and dump it on the rocks to make that stretch of road 4 lanes. They could make some fantastic sections up there to help meet some costs. Create a big flat subdivision above the road. I hope its not resource consents that are holding that up. It’s not like its a great stretch of beach.
It just scares me that if we ever we had to leave Wellington in a hurry, you just couldn’t.
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While I’m secretely pleased it’s not just Auckland that’s apparently suffering from insane or total lack of transport planning, I’d be grateful if you could provide some background… T2 is presumably not Terminator 2?
That was a test for Wellingtonians. I think it stands for Transit 2. 2 or more people in the car can use the T2 lines.
From a recent Boston Legal I believe that Inflatable People do not count.
And build some barriers and allow german speedlimits at the same time.
And build some barriers and allow german speedlimits at the same time. But fuck building subdivisions along that stretch of road - it’s beautifully desolate.
I like to imagine what we could do if we had regular bullet trains (which go around 300-400km/h). Probably impractical, but you could have all sorts of satellite cities all over the place.
Now if you live in the middle of the north island, you could commute to either Auckland or Wellington
NZ is such a small place, whys it so hard getting around? (other than money and difficult geology :)
Rod, so you think thats a problem try this for size.
On Saturday my wife and I went from Milford on Aucklands north shore to Devonport to watch the Queen Mary 2 pull out and the fireworks. We left down from the Naval base at 10:40pm and got 200 metres to the Esplanade hotel by the ferry terminal and did not move for over 2 hours. Total trip home was over 2 and a half hours.
No police one site, no one from the north shore council, no one.
Now there was no more traffic than at Eden Park for a rugby test, but then they have police there to get things moving.
Don’t know why we pay taxes and rates!
The bit I love best about Mana is the flashing lights on the way out that say something like:
“T2 lane in operation to Goats Point”.
Where/what the hell is “Goats Point”?
I’ve driven through dozens of time and never seen the sign…
Leave Wellington? Why would anyone want to do that!
Seriously, I can’t believe you would want to cover the seaside rocks with fill. That’s eco-treason. But they could dump the dirt into Transmission Gully, haha …
I am appalled with the traffic build up in Te Aro. Ironically from the unfinished bypass!
Or you could move to Hawke’s Bay!
Don’t be such a greeny. There will still be rocks 15 meters out. Pah,
fill it in.
I just drove back past heading south. They seem to be doing more
roadworks to make a foot path. WTF?
“I am appalled with the traffic build up in Te Aro. Ironically from the unfinished bypass!”
Y’mean that’s still not finished?
Hey, I grew up in Tawa-Linden and know the areas you guys are talking ’bout though’ I’ve been in Perth 22 years now. That one lane each way still beside the rocks under the steep cliffs you’re talkin’ bout. Yeah. Pukerua Bay to Paekak etc. Need for a ‘double carriageway’ for sure. Greenies can halt progress and development often. Can I link to a business site? Geoff.
….or you could just move to Chch ;-)
… or Napier :)
Seriously, I imagine that such and upgrade has been mooted, then totally stomped on by resource consents.
Or more likely, someone started looking into it, and discovered some reason the eco-nazies will use to mire the whole process in a mammoth wall of red-tape that will take decades to get extracted from.
That section of rocks is probably the only environment in the world that a vitaly interesting (yet strangely obscure unless you’re one of the 3 people in the world that actually cares about barnacles) subvariety of the common barnacle can ever possibly grow, and if we build a road there, we’ll be DESTROYING THE PLANET.
*spit*
I’ve thought this quite often, and in fact the last I did the trip (last month) I noticed that much of the road seemed wide enough for 4 lanes. Perhaps only narrow enough for 80km, but this would still fix the main problem of peak traffic and holiday congestion. Making a 1m cut into the cliff side and a 1m on the seaside would be good enough for 90%.
What I don’t understand is how that shore differs from McKays crossing. In my opinion the over rail bridge was necessary, but geez they have basically made a runway big enough for a 747 and the offramp to Queen Elizabeth path is bigger than the old stretch of road. (And perhaps if they’d just made a “normal” 4 lane area it wouldn’t take until I’m retiring for it to finish!). I was also flabbergasted that they didn’t extend the 4 lanes to Paekak, or even to where that vege market is.
They are so against a small impact on the shore yet can carve massive horrid mounds of dirt a few kilometers north?
Ofcourse, 4 laning the coast road will only be of real merit when they 4 lane it through Pukerua Bay (that will be a complex issue) and Paekak (which seems to have plenty of room, and I can’t see why it is labelled a death trap; it seems one of the safest 2 lane areas between Wellington and Waikanae… )
Be greatful you don’t live in Canterbury where there is a grand total of 6km of divided rural highway. We have always lost more of our petrol taxes than Auckland and are still losing 30 cents in every dollar.
And we have worse congestion than Auckland (Transit Travel-time Survey 2006, it’s on their web site.)
And we have a greater risk of an earthquake than Wellington, according to EQC. This is because Canterbury is on a giant shingle fan so the shockwaves from the Great Alpine Earthquake will make the ground behave like the water in a lake in a storm. Geological and Nuclear Sciences have calculated a 65% probability of a M7.9 - M8.2 within 40 years with the fault rupturing all the way from Franz Joseph to Lewis Pass. According to the WCRC Lifelines study Transit expects to lose at least 40 bridges on SH6 but the Govt mustn’t believe them cos they cut West Coast’s highway investment to it’s lowest since World War 2. Actually, the Arahura road/rail bridge is going to be replaced by a new road/rail bridge within 5 years. At that rate it will only take the Govt 200 years to prepare for an event which happens, on average, every 200 years!!