City’s $24m request for cycleways

Taxpayers will be asked to bail out cycleway plans for Wellington’s southern suburbs, as the budget for the Island Bay design has doubled.

Wellington City Council will ask the Government for $24 million and is preparing a strategic business case to get cofunding for work on the controversial cycleway, as well as the Newtown connections area.

The funding will be on top of $8m the council has committed for the southern project, of which $6m was planned to be funnelled into Island Bay.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) had previously refused to solely fund work on the Parade in Island Bay because of the route’s lack of connection through to Wellington’s CBD.

However, the council is hopeful the Government’s ‘‘new direction’’ – giving priority to walking and cycling – had the potential to ‘‘significantly’’ change its decision.

Rongotai MP and Island Bay resident Paul Eagle said he was concerned that the costs of the Island Bay ‘‘compromise’’ solution had significantly blown out.

He understood the $6m design, which was signed off by the council in 2017, would now cost $12m. ‘‘If that is the case, it will be about $6m per kilometre.

‘‘It appears the council could be secretly trying to subsidise an Island Bay shortfall with taxpayer money, and that is not on.’’

There was no guarantee the council would get the funding because NZTA had not confirmed its criteria yet, Eagle said.

He intended to talk to Transport Minister Phil Twyford to ensure it was understood what the government funding would pay for.

If NZTA did allocate funding for Wellington’s cycleways, he hoped that some of it would be used for the popular proposed route from Wellington Airport to Red Rocks, which had disappeared from the council’s agenda.

Council documents show that after the city’s compromise decision in September 2017, designers looked in more detail at the construction work required to implement ‘‘the long list of design features councillors had approved’’, as well as possible opportunities to align future work in the neighbourhood.

This revealed that extra stormwater pipes and more work at intersections would be required.

The additional work and changing market conditions meant the indicative cost of doing the work was higher than budgeted.

It is understood that the impact of ‘‘overweight’’ doubledecker buses on the roads had also contributed to the problems.

Documents released to Stuff under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, reveal that a February report showed it was likely to cost up to $1.5m in pavement repairs on top of current costs.

But the council still does not know the ‘‘accurate costs’’ for the overall cycleway project, saying this will only be known once it has gone to market.

The council will ask NZTA for $24m from the National Land Transport Programme for the southern connection strategic package that would be delivered by late June 2021.

‘‘It appears the council could be secretly trying to subsidise an Island Bay shortfall with taxpayer money and that is not on.’’ Rongotai MP Paul Eagle