Author: tjonescan

What Submitters Do And Don’t Have To Do This Week

Posted on by tjonescan

Some submitters have contacted the Campaign, concerned that they have to finish the oral submission they plan to make to the Board (also known as their representation) by this Friday, 13 December. This is not the case.Friday 13 December is the deadline for expert evidence, and so it is only relevant to those submitters who are putting forward expert witnesses.

The important date for all submitters who pan to appear before the Board is Monday 16 December. There are two things you must do no later than Monday 16 December:

1) Notify the Board if you plan to cross-examine any witnesses. You also need to send this notification to the party (e.g. NZTA) who is calling each witness. You must make these notifications by noon on Monday 16 December.

2) Notify the Board if you plan to make an oral submission (representation). You must do this even if you have previously told them (e.g. at the time of making your original submission) that you want to make a representation/oral submission.

As usual, you should contact the Board at BasinBridge@epa.govt.nz

These are the main points about Monday the 16th, but for the full details, see the latest version of the Indicative Timetable at

http://www.epa.govt.nz/Publications/BB66_Memorandum_No.27_Changes_to_timetable.pdf

Note that the hearing start date has now been postponed until Monday 3 February.

Basin Reserve Flyover Flaws Revealed for All to See

Posted on by tjonescan

We knew the NZTA’s plans to build a flyover at the Basin Reserve were fatally flawed. Now several days of highly critical media coverage, with pictures of what a flyover would look like if NZTA’s plans go ahead, mean that a lot more people can see these flaws. What’s more, it’s a peer review panel of experts that has been the source of much of the criticism.

So let’s take a moment to review the recent coverage on Wellington Scoop and the Dominion Post:

UPDATE: Check out these before-and-after images (without and then with a Basin flyover) from Transport Blog: http://transportblog.co.nz/2013/11/27/photo-of-the-day-basin-bridge

The Emperor’s new clothes are well and truly off, and the proposed flyover’s flaws are laid bare for all to see.

New NZTA Flyover Images Show A Grey Monstrosity

Posted on by tjonescan
A flyover would dominate the view from St Mark's School - With thanks to Wellington Scoop
A flyover would dominate the view from St Mark’s School – With thanks to Wellington Scoop

The NZTA wriggled and struggled and fought, but eventually they had to bow to the will of Board on Inquiry Chair Judge Whiting and produce visual mockups of what a flyover would look like imposed on Mt Victoria and the Basin Reserve area.

Of course, being the NZTA, they prettified the images as much as they could, expecting us to believe that a flyover would come magically surrounded by fully-grown trees. But even so, the results aren’t pretty, as a new article on Welington Scoop clearly shows: http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=62368

This article contrasts before and after views of Mt Victoria with and without the proposed flyover. It shows how the flyover will cut across Wellington both physically and visually, severing communities and destroying iconic views. And for what? For nothing more than a monument to NZTA”s and the Government’s outdated transport thinking in an era when vehicle use is declining.

Let’s work together to stop this grey monstrosity being foisted on Wellington. You can:

The Traffic Modelling Reality Gap

Posted on by tjonescan

Ex-Wellingtonian Nina Arron is a planner with a passion for Pedestrian Oriented Development who now lives in New Rochelle, New York. This means that she is in a great position to observe the gap between traffic modellers’ predictions and modern transport reality – the reality that traffic volumes are declining.

Photo by Patrick Morgan
Photo by Patrick Morgan

It seems that NZTA are not the only transport planners who are unable to see this reality. Nina has compiled a series of examples, from the US, Canada and Australia, of instances in which traffic planners’ faith in their outdated and inadequate models has led to costly transport failures.

You can read her article here: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1311/S00083/transportation-in-the-21st-century-the-modelingreality-gap.htm

NZTA – and the Government ministers behind the $12 billion “Roads of National Significance” scheme – are willing slaves to their models of endless traffic growth, unable to see the evidence of declining vehicle volumes that is in front of their eyes. That’s why it’s great to have someone like Nina to point it out to them.

Dollars And Nonsense

Posted on by tjonescan

Cash, moolah, dollars, dineros.

Whatever you call it, we need it. (At least, we need some of it – we don’t want to be unreasonable!)

That’s because we’re a community organisation pitted against a lavishly-funded Government agency that can afford to pay top dollar to secure the services of lawyers, consultants and expert witnesses.

We make up some of the gap through volunteer work done by already busy people – but we need money too. And if you want this nonsensical, retrograde, ugly flyover stopped, then we need your help. Incidentally, when we were in Stockholm – my buddy shattered his arm one night doing something silly, and we had to get a låna pengar direkt to get him fixed up.

The good news is that it’s easy to donate. Here’s how:

Donate within New Zealand

Online:

Kiwibank account: 38-9011-0725227-01

By mail:

Please send a cheque marked “Save the Basin Campaign” to:

Save the Basin Campaign
c/- PO Box 19-056
Courtenay Place
Wellington 6149

Donate worldwide

Please donate via our page on the Givealittle fundraising site:

http://www.givealittle.co.nz/org/savethebasin

We’d love to acknowledge your support, so please email us at stoptheflyover@gmail.com and tell us the details of your donation.

Thank you for your support.

Gareth Morgan Calls For An Urgent Review Of Wellington Region Roading Policy

Posted on by tjonescan

If you read one article online today, make it this one:

Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons: An urgent review of roading policy is needed to prevent Wellington going up a blind alley: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/9306413/Headed-in-the-wrong-direction

It takes a scathing look at the inadequate or nonexistent analysis underlying the Government’s Roads of National Significance plans for the Wellington region. It does list the proposed Basin flyover as one that has a mooted Benefit-Cost Ratio of greater than 1, but a little more digging would have revealed that the Basin BCR is only greater than 1 because NZTA rejigged their calculations to make it so.

When even such mainstream figures as Gareth Morgan are calling for a rethink, the Government and the relevant local authorities ought to see that they have a real problem with roading policy.

Blow, Wind! Come, Wrack! NZTA’s Flyover Planners Ought To Get The Sack

Posted on by tjonescan

When William Shakespeare wrote the lines above, he was thinking of a certain unpopular Scottish king rather than NZTA (and to be fair, it was actually me who wrote the bit about NZTA).

But Wellington is a very windy place. We were reminded of that on Monday this week, when gusts of up to 140kmh rendered various Wellington streets unsafe. As usual, the wind speeds near the Basin Reserve were particularly high – in a strong north-westerly, Kent and Cambridge Terraces appear to act as wind tunnels, funnelling air towards the Basin Reserve.

And guess what NZTA want to build right in the path of such winds, and the less frequent but often equally vicious southerlies? A 9 metre high flyover, plus walkway/cycleway. 9 metres is a long way to fall.

NZTA’s own Basin “Bridge” proposal documents already admit that high winds will be a problem for the proposed flyover, as reported in this Dominion Post story:

A resource consent application for the proposed $90 million Basin Bridge, which was referred to a board of inquiry last week, states wind gusts in the middle of the bridge could be “extremely high”, at more than 25 metres a second, which NZTA confirmed amounted to 90kmh.

“The orientation of the bridge to the prevailing winds means that pedestrians and cyclists will be exposed to wind flows from the side, for which they are less prepared,” the consent says.

There is also risk to high-sided vehicles, such as lightly loaded trucks, and to motorcyclists when winds hit more than 90kmh: “Effects can range from causing tracking variations to complete overturning.”

Note that NZTA says the danger starts at winds of 90kmh – yet the wind reached speeds of 140kmh in Wellington in Monday’s storm, and similar speeds have been experienced in other recent storms. Wind gusts above 90kmh are by now means uncommon in Wellington.

The news gets worse for NZTA: Both the frequency and the strength of extreme wind events are expected to increase over the proposed project lifetime as a result of climate change (see, for example, http://www.niwa.co.nz/our-science/climate/information-and-resources/clivar/scenarios#regional). So the danger to drivers, passengers, walkers and cyclists will only get worse.

And what does NZTA propose to do about this serious and growing problem? Well, er … they plan to put up warning signs. Yep, that’s pretty much it.

The disconnect between the seriousness of the problem and the triviality of the response would be laughable if it were not for the fact that lives would be at stake if the flyover goes ahead. A wind of change needs to blow through NZTA: a strong wind, and soon.

Positive Signs Around The Council Table

Posted on by tjonescan

It looks as though the outcome of the local body elections is, for the most part, good news for opponents of a Basin Reserve flyover and advocates of sustainable transport solutions for Wellington.

Crucially, John Morrison failed to sell Wellingtonians on his vision of a road-choked city, with neither his policies, his dubious campaign tactics nor his sexist remarks on the campaign trail appealing to voters.

Instead, voters chose to stick with anti-flyover incumbent Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, and have given her a Council which, if responses to Save the Basin’s and Generation Zero’s election surveys are any guide, looks slightly more in favour of sustainable transport solutions than the previous Council.

Congratulations to all the anti-flyover and pro-sustainable transport Councillors who have been elected to both Wellington City Council and Wellington Regional Council, and commiserations to those who didn’t make it this time.

Basin Flyover Board Of Inquiry Member Resigns Over Alleged Conflict Of Interest

Posted on by tjonescan

We’ve just received word that one of the members of the Basin “Bridge” Board of Inquiry has resigned. Here is the official statement from the Board’s website:

“Mrs Christine Foster has given consideration to the objections raised alleging conflict of interest. Mrs Foster has, in the interests of the Board and process, offered her resignation to the Minister for the Environment. The Minister has accepted the resignation. The Board has decided to ask the EPA to seek the Minister’s consideration of appointing a replacement Board member.”

This is the Board’s Memorandum on the issue (PDF):

http://www.epa.govt.nz/Publications/Memorandum_No.09_-_Resignation_of_Mrs_Foster.pdf

It appears that all is not plain sailing for this particular Board of Inquiry.

UPDATE: Wellington Scoop has more on the background to this story: http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=60466

Basin Flyover Board Of Inquiry Issues Revised Hearing Timetable

Posted on by tjonescan

The Board of Inquiry convened to run the hearing process on the proposed Basin Reserve flyover held a Pre-Hearing Conference on Wednesday 25 September.

The pre-hearing conference was held in the unlikely surroundings of the Mercure Hotel at the top end of the Terrace – a venue which is up a hill, unsheltered, and has no public transport access and little parking. We hope the hearing itself will be held somewhere that has good public transport access, is central, and is on the flat.

The Pre-Hearing Conference heard submissions on a number of procedural issues. Many submitters to the Pre-Hearing Conference, including Save the Basin, argued that the proposed hearing start date of Monday 13 January was unrealistic and unfair, and argued for a start date of Monday 3 February or later.

While we didn’t get everything we wanted on this one, the Board has moved the hearing start date forward two weeks to Monday 27 January. Here is the revised indicative timetable from this point forward:

Friday 25 October: Applicant’s Evidence in Chief (EIC) lodged with EPA

Friday 13 December: Submitters evidence lodged with EPA

Monday 16 December: Expert witness conferencing begins no later than this date

Friday 10 January: Applicant’s rebuttal evidence lodged with EPA

Monday 20 January: Last day for giving notice of making representations

Monday 27 January: Hearing starts

Friday 28 February: Hearing ends

Thursday 17 April: Draft decision released

Monday 19 May: Comments on draft decision due

Friday 30 May: Final decision released

Some points to note:

  • The new deadline for lodging “submitters evidence” with the Board is Friday 13 December.
  • NZTA have been given a deadline of 10 January to lodge their rebuttal evidence.
  • The end date for the Board of Inquiry process has been pushed out to 30 May 2014 (as allowed for by a recent change to legislation).

Even with these changes, the timetable for these hearing processes is very tight. Several previous Boards of Inquiry have had to be extended beyond the intended nine-month period.