Business case for second Mt Victoria tunnel in Wellington delayed, Lets Get Wellington Moving has 'no public credibility'
Thursday, 25 February 2021
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has confirmed its business case into a second Mount Victoria tunnel, a significant part of the problematic $6.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving transport project, has been delayed.
Responding to a question from Wellington National list MP Nicola Willis, the agency confirmed in a select committee on Thursday that the business case – which was due out in early 2021– had been more-complicated than expected.
It was delayed and now due out “later this year”, the agency said while agency chairman Sir Brian Roche confirmed to the committee that the Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) programme currently had “no public credibility”.
Labour had signed up to building a second Mt Victoria tunnel to ease congestion in the city but previously said that would only happen towards the end of the decade after work began on the city's rapid transit network. National had wanted to bring construction forward.
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After the October general election, Transport Minister Michael Wood suggested the construction of the tunnel might be brought forward if that is what was recommended by business cases for the LGWM package.
'I think we do need to see the business case, but we also need some further engagement with regional partners,' Wood said in November. “I'll keep an open mind until I'm fully briefed.”
The $6.4 billion LGWM programme has faced a large amount of criticism, largely due to the lack of spades-in-the-ground work on the programme, designed to alleviate Wellington’s increasingly bad traffic problems
A scathing review of the project last week found it was “at risk of failing to deliver”, and needed to be paused so major problems could be addressed. Problems, many that have persisted since LGWM’s inception five years ago, included under-resourcing, staff shortages, lack of expertise, and a lack of “strategic leadership”.
NZTA confirmed to the select committee there was still no indicative date for when construction on the tunnel would start.