Traffic grinds on, as Gully takes shape
As completion of the $1.25 billion Transmission Gully project nears, the new motorway offers light at the end of a long tunnel for the region’s congested roads. LauraWiltshire and Joel MacManus report.
Transmission Gullywill – fingers crossed – open this year, providing much-needed relief for vehicles headed in and out of the capital.
Traffic has ground to a near-standstill daily in the final week of 2020.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has put out congestion warnings on State Highway 1 between Peka Peka and taki almost every day of the Christmas/New Year period.
This year, the new state highway route should open and fresh aerial pictures show the road is taking shape, albeit with a lot of work still to be completed.
Once ready, 25,000 cars a day are predicted to drive along Transmission
Gully, slicing 11 minutes off the current drive time and reducing congestion pressure on State
Highway 1.
The road has had a troubled history since construction began in 2014 under a controversial public-private partnership, managed by Wellington Gateway Partnership and Waka Kotahi NZTA.
The 2016 Kaiko¯ura earthquake, the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as road surfacing and safety issues, turned the $850 million project into a $1.25 billion ordeal. The road’s opening date was pushed back by more than 18 months, with some experts predicting the real opening date could be closer to 2023.
But those involved in the construction are now fully confident the road would be open to the public by the official opening date of September 2021.
Sergio Mejia, chief executive of Wellington Gateway Partnership, said in November he was 100 per cent certain the road would open on schedule.
‘‘I am certain we are going to hit the
target. We are fully committed.’’
The only thing that could delay the project further would be an earthquake or a long run of bad weather, he said.
All major structural features of the 27-kilometre road have been completed, including 24 bridges and major culverts, totalling more than 1km in length. The most significant pieces of work are the 60-metre-high Te Ara a Toa bridge over Cannons Creek, and the 70m-deep cut into Wainui Saddle, which required 850,000 cubic metres of earth to be moved, enough to fill Sky Stadium 2.7 times over.
Most of the work remaining is made up of laying pavement and adding paint, signage, and other road dressings.
Leo Cooney is a pilot who has been flying over Transmission Gully since 2017, when work was still being done scratching out the road. He was impressed with the progressmade since December 2019, despite Covid-19.
‘‘I just thought this is a huge project, and we are seeing history being made a bit, and I’ve just been keen to get photos of the progress each year. There is a lot of work to done be from the northern end, from the Wainui Saddle, down through Paeka¯ka¯riki,’’ he said.
Cooney, a recreational pilot with the Manawatu¯ Aviation Club at Feilding, took the new aerial pictures on December 29, flying the club’s Skyarrow aircraft with co-pilot Colin McMillan.
‘‘There has been a lot of progress, there is no doubt about that. I think they have done exceptionally well considering the constraints they have had.’’
Watching the road develop had brought home the enormity of the project, he said.
Transmission Gully has experienced cost blowouts and delays, and a review began in October looking at whether the original agreed price was reasonable, after it increased from $850m to $1.25b.