Transmission Gully: More years, more uncertainties

The weirdest thing about Transmission Gully is that the more time passes, the less we know about it.

It is perhaps fitting for a road that’s been mooted for a century: after five years of construction, there are more unknowns about the project than at the beginning.

Currently, we do not know when our billion-dollar road will open. We do not know how much more money, on top of the extra already being paid, is needed to get the road finished.

Currently, we do not know the status of the relationship between the Wellington

Gateway consortium contracted to deliver and maintain Transmission Gully, its builder CPB-HEB, and the New Zealand Transport Agency.

We do know the road was meant to open in April, then May, then November, then ‘‘well into 2021’’, according to the agency.

We do know the NZTA agreed to pay an additional $190 million, then an extra $14m, to keep the project going. This after it was delayed by the Kaiko¯ ura earthquake and Covid-19.

We do know that this wasn’t how the original agreement – a private-public partnership – was expected to work. According to that deal, we would only start paying for the road once it opened. The road would cost a ‘‘net $850m’’ (in 2014 dollars) to build. The consortium would pay upfront to design and build the road.

We do know the agency is in discussions with Gateway and CPB-HEB over an opening date, funding and penalties for the project. We know they have been in discussions for months.

We know none of the parties will discuss the discussions but strains appear to be showing.

We know the project could be substantially delayed: Porirua Mayor Anita Baker said the new date could be late 2022.

We know there has been uncertainty over the jobs of workers on the project.

We know the mayors of Porirua and Ka¯ piti, Baker and K Gurunathan, want the agency, or the Government, to put in more cash to get the road built.

We know we need this 27-kilometre link in a chain of four-lane roads from O¯ taki to the Terrace Tunnel.

We know the first $630m section of the Ka¯ piti expressway opened in 2015, and the second $330m section is delayed but set to open next year. Without Transmission Gully, they would feed into the suffocating road between Paeka¯ ka¯ riki and central Porirua. Traffic would only arrive more quickly to delays.

We know people living around the project are waiting for certainty.

We know with absolute certainty the region in general just wants its road built. This, at least, has never changed.