Editor
Nothing in Richard Halliday’s letter (Kāpiti News) is new, it’s all old hat, rehashed. He should be embarrassed.
Is he saying that he didn’t know this when the consultation took place? Or is he saying that he didn’t know this when he stood for council?
Anyway he has missed the central issue which is that traffic levels do not justify an Expressway.
The road 30 kms south Auckland is not a motorway and has a daily traffic volume of 40,000. So why when we are 60 + kms north of a smaller city , why do we need a motorway with a daily traffic volume of half that at only 20,000?
How can this motorway be justified when the one in the Bombay Hills is not ?
Oh make that two incorrect assumptions.
The consultation did not offer a “no expressway” option. That’s why the returns were so low. Only 4,000 responses were received out of 40,000 issued, a poultry 10%.
Oh and three incorrect assumptions.
The Colmar Brunton survey asked people if they preferred a Western Link Road, NOT an Expressway.
The key is the word LINK – meaning interconnections.
The Expressway dos not allow LINKs for local traffic.
Darren Hughes survey, which used the accepted wording, found 75% opposed to the Sandhills route being a motorway.
And four.
The consultation said that NO houses would be affected. NZTA now state that some 50 house will be demolished.
And five.
The Foxton motorway (real name) was planned in 1947 not 1954.
And this was reduced to a two lane road because of the predicted traffic volumes.
The two lane WLR has a capacity of 20,000 vpd. At that time Waikanae had 500 houses. Times change, it’s not like driving a road through the countryside anymore.
And six.
The road will be engineered to 110 kph and not 80 kph. It is dishonest of him to imply that 80 kph is an option. Has he discussed this with NZTA ? I have sent them an e-mail asking them if they provided him with this information. And since when have people stuck to the speed limit ? The police admit that they allow a 10% leeway.
NZTA have already stated that they will not use the Sandhills route in three places.
The consultation did not mention cutting through QE-II part and the additional cost.
Neither did it mention the extra $1 million per year that ratepayers will have to fork out to maintain the “Eastern link road (aka SH-1)”.
Now what has changed is that Labour have stated that they will fund to 100% the WLR.
This will then be at zero cost to the rate payers and considerably less money that the unwanted Expressway.
Colin Baxter
Waikanae
