Transmission Gully Motorway is like the end of a rainbow. It is always just over the horizon, says Coastal Highway Group spokesperson Dick Jessup.
Following the decision of the Board of Inquiry there have been reports that the project is scheduled to commence in 2015 and could be finished by 2021.
Mr Jessup says there has been no official statement that it will start in 2015 and it is hard to believe that New Zealand’s biggest infrastructure project could be built in six years.
“And it now seems that the cost has jumped up by a further $300 million. So a 2015 start and completion by 2015 are highly dubious and the pot of gold in the shape of a four lane motorway from Kāpiti to Wellington is still on the other side of a large financial mountain.
“There has been no announcement about funding. Until the Government can commit finance for the whole cost of the project it will not be started. Everyone is aware of the constraints on Government funds. It seems most unlikely that finance will be allocated to work with a low benefit from high costs otherwise we will be following the path which has brought so much trouble to Spain and Greece,” says Mr Jessup.
He added, “The prospect is for decades of inaction. The Minister of Transport should turn his attention to projects which could bring appreciable benefits for travellers between Kāpiti and Wellington for a relatively modest outlay. High on the list is a bypass at Pukerua Bay. The present road through that seaside village is much as it was when it was built in the 1930’s. It is a frustrating and dangerous disgrace.”
Mr Jessup says a Pukerua Bay bypass would be welcomed both by the residents and by motorists.
