Right; start up the bulldozers!

There's been some long overdue and welcome news today for those who drive in and out of Wellington; Stuff reports:

Wellington's Transmission Gully has been given draft approval, almost a century after it was first mooted.
In a draft decision released today an independent board of inquiry, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency said it would approve resource consent for the $1 billion, 27km inland highway from Linden to north of Paekakariki.
It will release its final decision in mid-June after feedback. That decision is binding and can be appealed against only on a point of law.
Today's draft decision marks the latest hurdle in a project which - if and when completed - will be over a century from inception to realisation.
An inland alternative route out of Wellington was first mooted in 1919 and has been under serious investigation since the 1980s.
But the project got a big boost in 2010 when the Government deemed it a road of national significance, meaning the consent process was fast-tracked and scope for opposition narrowed. 

This is great news, and the sooner that the bulldozers get in there and start cutting this road, the better. We visit Wellington on a reasonably frequent basis, and a direct route from the north right to the motorway will make a huge difference. Thanks go to the John Key-led government for expediting progress.

Who knows; there might still be the remote possibility that we will get to drive the Transmission Gully highway in our lifetime.