There's been a lot of talk lately about the Transmission Gully highway out of Wellington.
We went to Wellington on Thursday for a friend's graduation from Victoria University. Unfortunately, we didn't get back on the road home until around 4.45pm, so we hit peak hour traffic.
The traffic on the Hutt Motorway was heavy, but moving steadily albeit at regulated speeds. Ngauranga Gorge was negotiated smoothly, and everything was going swimmingly until we hit the first crawl.
The traffic at the Paremata roundabout was backed up almost to the Porirua off-ramp.
We eventually got through Paremata and Plimmerton, but it was a grind. We hit the twin-lane section after the Palmers' roundabout thinking we'd have a half-decent run to Pukerua Bay and points north; how wrong we were.
The traffic ground to a halt by the Whenua Tapu cemetery , and we crawled up the hill on New Zealand's State Highway One at no more than 10pm/hr.
From there it was a grind until we finally got back on the two-lane highway at Mackay's Crossing, which is where Transmission Gully will join SH1.
The Transmission Gully road has been talked about for decades. It's getting nearer, and we may yet get to traverse in before our earthly life ends. But even this week, the Greens were giving reasons why Transmission Guuly shouldn't be built.
We stopped in Levin for a bite to eat on Thursday night. We were more than two hours into the trip home, and had travelled less than half the distance. Let's just get this road built, and make Wellington more accessible.
8 comments:
Absolutely agree. I have been driving in and out of Wellington for nearly 30 years and the highway North is nothing short of an embarrassment/danger.(How do fire crews and ambulance crews negotiate this stretch?)
Cadwallader
Sounds stressful. You should have caught the train. Why should everyone else spend a billion dollars building you another road?
It's a Swindle of National Significance.
Dunne's baby ought to be aborted.
The government is softening us up for higher prescription charges, fewer teachers, and a further assault on beneficiaries. Meanwhile, they’re spending billions on “Roads of National Significance” that do not meet basic cost-benefit tests, to service a declining demand for road transport. The Greens are right: this is not “fiscally responsible”.
"A declining demand for road transport"? Not on Thursady there wasn't!
Transmission Gully will be expensive; there's no doubt about that. But the final result will be well worth the investment in Wellington's future.
I totally agree. Having traveled this road for many years I get frustrated with the waiting. How commuters feel who are on the road daily, I can only guess. But the road needs to bypass Paraparaumu and Waikane as well. I have been stuck in ques as far as Otaki.
The road will bypass Paraparaumu and Waikanae as well, thats happening before the Transmission gully part. But all of it needs to be built out as far as Foxton, it will rejuvanate the whole region and allow businesses to move out of the central city as they will be in reasonable reach of the city when needed.
YES! Let's all spend several billion dollars so the writers of this blog can get home 10 minutes earlier in rush hour traffic!
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