Twyford flexible on tunnel plans
Transport Minister Phil Twyford says he’s not ruling out bringing forward construction of an extra Mt Victoria tunnel.
Twyford met Wellington Mayor Andy Foster and Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter yesterday to discuss the $6.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) programme, which includes plans for an extra tunnel some time after 2029.
Foster wants to bring the project forward so it is built ahead of a proposed mass transit system between the city’s railway station and airport, despite voting in favour of the proposed programme as a councillor in June.
Twyford said after the meeting he was open to discussing the programme’s timeline once business cases for the mass transit system and proposed roading projects were assessed.
Contracts for engineering, design and planning work for those projects were put out for tender two weeks ago.
The contracts would be awarded next year, and it was hoped to start early business case work by early 2021.
‘‘I had a constructive and positive meeting this morning with Mayor Foster and chair Ponter,’’ Twyford said. ‘‘We are working on a package of early Let’s Get Wellington Moving projects that will ease congestion. We hope to be able to publicly release this package soon.
‘‘We all agreed to move forward with the business cases for both rapid transit and roading, including the second Mt Victoria tunnel. Then we can have a discussion on the basis of evidence.’’
Ponter told Stuff Twyford reiterated that mass transit was the ‘‘driver’’ of the LGWM programme.
It follows comments from Twyford on Tuesday that the fundamental elements of the 20-year programme were not up for debate. He declined to elaborate on what those elements were before he met Foster and Ponter.
Ponter said he did not get any sense among his councillors that there was an appetite to re-order the programme.
The majority of city councillors contacted by Stuff last month also said they were in favour of retaining the status quo. However, it was revealed in August that Twyford had received official advice from the Ministry of Transport warning the $700 million tunnel project needed to go ahead sooner rather than later.
Ponter said it was agreed priority bus lanes on core city routes would be the first major project in which spades would hit the ground.
The city and regional councils would formalise that agreement in mid-March, with consultation to follow and the first bus lanes to be introduced in early 2021.
Twyford again ruled out implementing congestion charges or a regional fuel tax to help fund the programme, despite Foster warning the city council could simply not afford its share through rates and borrowing alone.