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WCC, RTC and now GWRC adopt positions to protect Takapu Valley from motorway

29 April 2015 – Greater Wellington Regional Council voted strongly against NZTA plans to put a road through Takapu Valley (http://www.gw.govt.nz/committee-meetings-calendar/detail/7239).

28 April 2015 – Regional Transport Committee voted against putting a motorway through Takapu Valley (http://www.gw.govt.nz/committee-meetings-calendar/detail/7237).

14 April 2015 – Wellington City Council voted strongly against a motorway through Takapu Valley (http://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/meetings/committees/council/2015/04/14)

That’s really signficant in our drive to stop this pointless road destroying Takapu Valley forever.  Councillors have almost unanimously agreed that the claimed benefits from NZTA are nowhere near the potential social and environmental costs to the city.

However, as Raewyn Bleakley pointed out to councillors at the March 2015 RTC meeting, it doesn’t matter because NZTA will be taking the matter to the NZTA Board to decide this year.  This might be so, but we really hope Wellington NZTA will relook at the matter with an open mind and see that they now have a clear mandate to refocus on making a very good east-west link road from Petone to Grenada without the distracting unnecessary matters of options C (SH1 widening) or D (Takapu) add-ons diluting it’s purpose. 

We also hope that NZTA are listening to the grave concerns we have regarding joining Petone to Grenada Road to SH1 at a Tawa interchange.  We know this is going to induce it’s own traffic congestion and problems.  The smart solution we think is to go back and develop the original designs further for a fast merge near Churton Park (original options A & B).  There are early promising signs that NZTA are starting to do this (like the 8 NZTA staff seen in a huddle with lots of pointing, near Churton Park interchange today), and we’d like to commend and encourage them to do so.

Getting here has taken considerable work from volunteers so far.  Many councillors have invested considerable time investigating the matter properly too. And there has been considerable support from Hon. Peter Dunne and also Wellington Scoop, for which we are grateful for their ongoing support

Common sense decision by Wellington City Council on Petone to Grenada Rd

On 14th April 2015, the Wellington City Council voted a strong (11/4) position on the Petone to Grenada Road proposal, and the last minute additions of either widening SH1 past Tawa (option C), or a new road through Takapu Valley (option D).

Their decision was to SUPPORT the Petone to Grenada Link Road proposal (which will be the largest road building exercise in Wellington City for decades), but NOT SUPPORT the last minute additions.

Clearly the case for Option C and Option D doesn’t exist.  Especially with the Takapu Valley Road option, where more scrutiny simply uncovers more environmental and social damage, that doesn’t equate with the small benefits claimed by NZTA.  Also, NZTA’s & OPUS’s own traffic modelling says volumes past Tawa will be fine until at least 2030. There are also serious concerns about NZTA’s analysis errors that mistakenly promoted the worst option (D) into first place.

It’s also becoming clear the massive interchange being designed at Tawa will be a huge weak link, and likely create its own congestion, which is becoming a concern with observers.  Councillors were concerned about this, and are strongly recommending that the P2G junction with SH1 should occur further south towards Churton Park.

Most people should be happy with this, as it’s a positive step to get on and build the Road aimed at removing congestion from Ngauranga Gorge.

Of course there will be misguided detractors – the Wellington Employers Chamber made a hash of a press release yesterday, but it mostly shows they don’t get the decision at all, as most of the commenters point out.  Some go further to suggest that John Milford was merely doing a favour for his predecessor Raewyn Bleakley – who is now the NZTA staffer responsible for the project.  Which if true wouldn’t surprise onlookers, as the behaviour of NZTA in Wellington has been very questionable of late – and heavily criticised by the Hon. Peter Dunne

Throughout the marathon council deliberations it became clear that Councillors had been fed a very one sided officials paper that talked only about traffic volumes and infrastructure details, without mention of the huge impacts amassing, especially with option D Takapu. Several Councillors chastised the poor quality.  It left councillors to have to research out the facts for themselves.  We’re very grateful that they did.

Takapu Valley: Last clean headwaters of Porirua Harbour. Protect it from NZTA

NZTA are proposing a big road through the last undeveloped headwaters of Porirua Stream, which is a major tributary of the Porirua Harbour system.

Last week Wellington City Councillors voted to endorse the new Te Awaura-O-Porirua Harbour and Catchment Strategy Action Plan to clean up the Porirua catchment. Surprisingly, Councillors weren’t even told by officials that Takapu Valley is an such an important asset to Porirua Stream and Harbour health in their report to bulldoze Takapu Valley in the following agenda item.  This report (item 3.3) made no mention of the terrible impacts possible if councillors vote for Option D of the Petone to Grenada Road proposal.

There are no trout in the Takapu Headwaters.  The stream teams with native fish (Banded kokopu, upland bullies, long finned eel etc) that replenish the catchment, and the 50+ springs in the headwaters feed pure water into a neglected stream.  NZTA’s plan would see huge amounts of sediement, hydrocarbon and rubber pollution washing into the catchment continually.  This can’t be allowed to happen.Click here for a link to the biggest map image to view.Takapu-Valley-Porirua-Stream-Headwaters_m

Fish-surveys-Takapueel-&-frances