Category: NZTA

Save the Basin Campaign congratulates Basin Reserve flyover Board of Inquiry on making the right decision

Posted on by stb_nyltr0

The Save the Basin Campaign today congratulated the Basin Bridge Board of Inquiry for declining approvals for the proposed Basin Reserve flyover.

Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Joanna Newman said that the Board of Inquiry had made the only logical decision based on the evidence that emerged during the four-month enquiry hearings. “During the hearing,” said Ms Newman, “it became evident that the proposal would have a profound impact on the historic heritage of the Basin Reserve cricket ground and surrounding area, for very little transport gain, and NZ Transport Agency had conducted a biased and incomplete evaluation of alternatives to their flyover plan and ignored all of the improvements already underway in the adjoining War Memorial Park tunnel development.”

The Board seems to have listened to the many residents, cyclists, walkers and motorists who explained the unique character of the area and its value to Wellington and the nation, which would have been destroyed by the project. “We’re delighted that the Board has said no to what would have been an unnecessary, expensive, ugly and hugely damaging project,” said Ms Newman. “The Board heard from a number of experts that there are major changes underway in how people use transport systems. This decision represents a great opportunity for Wellington to move away from the outdated motorway-and-flyover model of transport planning and towards the sustainable methods of providing access and mobility that are appropriate to a modern capital city in the 21st century.”

“We hope that the NZTA and the Government have seen sense and will not attempt to overturn this decision,” Ms Newman concluded. “However, if they do try to overturn it, the community will certainly be ready for them.”

Big. Really, Really Big.

Posted on by tjonescan

NZTA has stubbornly resisted calls to create a 3-D model of the proposed Basin Reserve flyover – presumably because it would make the scale of this project all the more visible.

Instead, they offered a guided ‘walkthrough’ of the route of the proposed flyover, and this morning, I turned up at the Basin Reserve with about 30 other people to hear what NZTA’s Greg Lee had to say.

But in the event, the most striking thing about the walkthrough wasn’t what he said, but where he and others pointed – the top of a lamppost here, a second-story window there. Those were the heights, many metres above our heads, that the flyover would pass if it was built. 10 metres of height may not sound like a lot, but it sure looks like a lot when you’re standing below where that roadway would be.

And then there were the widths – a huge span especially when the proposed pedestrian/cycleway is added in – and the massive pillars beneath.

NZTA’s design images show a light-coloured flyover almost merging with the blue sky above as young, attractive pedestrians amble by or lounge underneath (I’m pretty sure I saw Scarlett Johansson in one picture – who needs Hollywood when you have a flyover to recline under?)

If this thing is built, the reality will be very, very different. It will be large. It will be ugly. It will be dark, and equally dark in the shadows underneath. It will be a monstrosity, And so it must not be built.

Save the Basin Campaign press release: Transport Agency witness makes revealing admission at Basin Reserve flyover hearing

Posted on by tjonescan

Landscape architect Gavin Lister, appearing for the New Zealand Transport Agency, has made a revealing admission at the Board of Inquiry hearing into the proposed Basin Reserve flyover. Under questioning by Board of Inquiry member Mr David Collins, Gavin Lister said:

“Flyovers are anathema to urban design thinking because of what they represent. They represent a car dominated city, a sprawling car dominated city which is kind of the antithesis of the compact,  mixed use, high intensity city supported by walkability and public transport”

Commenting on this admission, Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones said “Under detailed questioning from the Board, Gavin Lister admitted what the Save the Basin Campaign has been saying all along: that the idea of building a flyover at the Basin Reserve is a relic of the antiquated, car-dominated transport thinking that modern cities all around the world have abandoned.”

“Having made this admission, Mr Lister then made a rather extraordinary turnabout to say that these were exactly the same reasons the proposed flyover was needed. He did not explain why.”

“When the Transport Agency’s own witnesses make such trenchant criticisms of flyovers, it’s a clear sign that the Basin Reserve flyover project has been badly thought through and inadequately assessed against alternatives.

“Wellingtonians are innovators and forward thinkers. It’s time the Government and the Transport Agency consigned flyovers to the dustbin of transport history and started developing modern, meaningful transport solutions,” Mr Jones concluded.

Three Months, Two Flyovers, And Some Branded Umbrellas

Posted on by tjonescan

Last week was quite a week for the campaign to stop a motorway flyover being built at the Basin Reserve. Events happened so rapidly that we never got round to covering them here, so here is a quick recap of the week.

Three-month extension to Basin Flyover Board of Inquiry

It had been evident for some time that the Basin “Bridge” Board of Inquiry was not going to meet its original, or even its revised, timetable. To their credit, the Board wrote to the minister and asked for an extension, which the Minister has now granted.

The Board was due to present its final report on 31 May. It now has until 31 August to report, which means that its final report, and any consequent legal action, will be happening around the time of the General Election.

Subsequent to this decision, the Board released a revised draft hearing timetable.

If you are a submitter who is making an oral submission, someone calling witnesses, or an expert witness, make sure you check this timetable and the further changes that have already occurred. Some submitters have already found that they have been scheduled to appear twice. Most individual submitters will now be scheduled to appear on Fridays. Due to the extension, there may also be a change in the hearing venue, which is currently the Amora Hotel.

Coverage of the three-month extension

Three-month extension announced – Minister “disappointed” (Wellington Scoop)

Reaction to decision (including Save the Basin’s reaction) (Dominion Post)

Delay to flyover hearing “good news, inevitable” say Labour MPs (Wellington Scoop)

Correspondence from Board’s lawyers shows that strength of cross-examination from flyover opponents was a major factor in the Board’s request for an extension (Wellington Scoop)

Other highlights of the week

New pictures give clearer view of Basin flyover impact (Dominion Post)

Radio New Zealand investigates all the money the New Zealand Transport Agency has been splurging on promoting the Government’s Roads of National Significance Projects – aka its plan to cover the country in motorways. (Although it’s the smallest item discussed, I particularly liked the fact that NZTA spent some  money on ‘branded umbrellas’. I feel we can all sleep more soundly knowing how well public money is being spent.)

The Wellington Civic Trust raises an issue that’s been bubbling under at the flyover hearings: the likelihood that approval for one Basin Reserve flyover would soon lead to a second flyover, running in the opposite direction, being built. (Dominion Post)

NZTA forced to combat allegations that it added the sub-standard combined pedestrian walkway/cycleway to the flyover proposal as a sop to Wellington City Council. (Dominion Post)

Monday At The Basin Reserve Flyover Hearing: Transport Evidence Going Against NZTA

Posted on by tjonescan

When I arrived at the Basin Reserve flyover Board of Inquiry hearing this morning, I walked right past an anxious-looking gathering of NZTA’s hearing team. I’m not surprised they were looking anxious, because the hearing has been going badly for them right from the start way back on Monday 3 February – and matters have most certainly not improved since the hearing moved on to consider transport evidence.

You might think that the one area in which the New Zealand Transport Agency might exhibit some level of assurance is transport. I mean, it says “Transport” in their name, right? But so far, not only have they been forced to repeatedly shift the grounds on which they are advancing their long-cherished flyover project, but they have not been able to find a convincing comeback to the very cogent and detailed criticisms of their proposal put forward by witnesses called by Save the Basin and other organisations.

A star witness in this regard has been John Foster. Himself a former transport planner, he was able to point out flaws in NZTA’s evidence as his appearance began last week, as covered by the Dominion Post:

The traffic predictions used to justify the Basin Reserve flyover were based on dodgy calculations, critics say.

Retired transport planner John Foster set about discrediting the New Zealand Transport Agency’s transport modelling at the flyover’s board of inquiry hearing this morning.

Mr Foster, who previously worked on the Transmission Gully highway, Dowse Interchange and Wellington’s Inner City Bypass, appeared for flyover opposition group Save the Basin.

In documents presented to the four-member board, he said the benefits of the $90 million project had been overstated, mainly due to errors on the transport agency’s part.

(For more, see Critics question benefits of flyover.)

On Monday morning, John Foster was able to point out further basic errors in NZTA’s figures and assumptions – and after he finished, Richard Reid, appearing as an expert witness for the Mount Victoria Residents Association, provided a very clear and cogent presentation of his “Basin Reserve Roundabout Enhancement Option” (BRREO), which lays out a plan for improving traffic flows around the Basin Reserve at-grade, without needing to build either flyovers or underpasses.

All NZTA has proved able to do in return is attack the witness – not his evidence.

All of which leaves me with two thoughts:

1) A phrase I’ve used about building a flyover at the Basin Reserve is that it would be ugly, unnecessary and unjustified. The hearing so far has been shown how it’s unjustified, because NZTA avoided consulting seriously on any option that wasn’t a flyover. Now the hearing is being shown how a flyover is unnecessary to meet transport needs. And in coming weeks they’ll be hearing a whole lot about how ugly a massive motorway flyover imposed on an iconic part of Wellington would be.

2) The more I see of NZTA’s hearing evidence, the more surprised I am at its low quality. For an organisation that brags about its expertise, it has done a very poor job of presenting its case. Perhaps over-confidence is the problem, or perhaps NZTA’s case is fundamentally deficient to begin with?

Loving the Basin

Posted on by tjonescan

Today is Valentine’s Day. It’s the first day of the second Test between New Zealand and India at the Basin Reserve. And today is also the day of our Love the Basin event at the Basin Reserve.

Many people love the Basin Reserve as a cricket ground, but the Basin has been used for many things in its time, and people love it for many reasons. Here’s why fashion designer Laurie Foon says she loves the Basin:

Thanks for all the great work you are doing, please keep it up.

I love the Basin as I ride my bike and this is is always my mellow interlude before approaching the city or the busy Adelaide Road.

I often stop on the south side to west side to sit in the late evening sun. I do not want the noise or visual of the flyover.

But the Love the Basin event is taking place against a background of backroom deals: backroom deals about the future of world cricket, and as recent revelations by Wellington Scoop show, backroom deals between Wellington City Council, the Basin Reserve Trust and the New Zealand Transport Agency:

Conflicts of interest: a secret flyover Memorandum of Understanding and its three signatories

To mix sporting metaphors, cricket has become a political football. Today at the Basin, I hope to see a celebration of the game, and a celebration of the Basin Reserve.

love_the_basin_logo

EPA Imposes Ludicrously Short Response Time On Basin Flyover Submitters

Posted on by tjonescan

The whole Basin “Bridge” (flyover) Board of Inquiry process  has been rendered dangerously close to farce by the nine-month timetable imposed on the Board process by the Government. However, the latest move by the Kerry Prendergast-chaired Environmental Protection Authority, which administers the Board, has plumbed new depths in its apparent contempt for submitters on the project.

At 5.35pm on Friday 17 January, the EPA sent submitters the Draft Hearing Schedule, a complex document that requires careful consideration – even making it legible is a challenge. Each submitter needs to check the time(s) that they are meant to appear and respond to the EPA if any changes are needed.

And how long have submitters been given to respond? One working day. The EPA has imposed a deadline of 5pm on Tuesday 21 January, and Monday 20 January is a public holiday in Wellington – so it’s Tuesday or bust, especially if you’re away from Wellington for the weekend.

Is this fair or reasonable? Absolutely not. Whether this is a deliberate attempt by the EPA to make it impossible for submitters to appear before the Board, or whether it is merely the product of incompetence, we will leave for the reader to decide. But such absurd and unrealistic deadlines raise serious questions about any notion of this Board of Inquiry conducting a fair, unbiased and objective hearing process.

Please contact your local MP and let them know how unfairly this EPA process is treating submitters.

What’s The Basin Reserve Flyover Issue All About?

Posted on by tjonescan

In case you’re new to the issue, here’s a quick introduction to what’s being proposed for the Basin Reserve, why the Save the Basin Campaign is opposed to it, and what you can do to help.

What’s the Basin Reserve?

The Basin Reserve is a recreation ground near the centre of Wellington. It is best known for being Wellington’s Test cricket ground, and has often been praised for its setting and its beauty.

What’s proposed for the Basin Reserve?

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), as part of the current New Zealand Government’s focus on building more motorways rather than funding public transport, walking and cycling, is planning to build a 10-metre-high one-way motorway flyover on the north-western boundary of the Basin Reserve at an estimated cost of at least $100 million. If built, it will be clearly visible from many parts of the ground.

Hang on a minute, did you say “one-way”?

It’s bizarre, but true. All this effort, expense and disruption is for the sake of a one-way road, running east to west. In fact, one of the many concerns about this proposed flyover is that it, if built, it may need to be followed by a second unsightly flyover running in the opposite direction.

What effect would a flyover have on cricket at the Basin?

Nobody is quite sure, but a number of senior international cricketers and cricket officials have expressed serious concerns at the potential effects on players, and also on the Basin’s future as an international cricket ground. We’re told that ‘mitigation measures’, mainly in the form of a new structure designed to block the view of the flyover from the pitch, have been agreed, though details have yet to be released of this agreement, but these measures don’t appear to shield the flyover from many fielders or spectators.

Why does NZTA want to build a flyover?

The NZTA is trying to convert the present route through Wellington to Wellington Airport into a motorway designed to carry increasing numbers of cars, even though traffic volumes are dropping. It wants to build a flyover as part of this route, and has been determined to do so for many years, despite a great deal of evidence (that will be presented at the forthcoming Basin flyover hearings) showing that a flyover is not necessary. NZTA has deliberately skewed figures to make other transport solutions appear not to be viable.

Was there any consultation before NZTA went ahead with its plans?

If you can call it consultation: NZTA gave Wellingtonians the option of agreeing to a flyover, or a slightly different flyover. NZTA ignored the many submissions calling for there not to be a flyover and then announced one of the flyovers as the preferred option. This is, sadly, typical of NZTA’s approach to engaging with the public.

What happens next?

The Government has set up a Board of Inquiry to hear the resource consent application to build what NZTA persists in calling a Basin “Bridge” – presumably because it realises the public doesn’t like flyovers. The Board of Inquiry hearing is scheduled to begin on Monday 3 February and is expected to report by the end of May. Save the Basin Campaign and an number of other organisations are presenting detailed cases covering why a flyover is unnecessary and shouldn’t be approved.

We hope that this Board of Inquiry will fully and carefully consider the question of whether the flyover should go ahead. However, the Government set up the Board of Inquiry process to fast-track projects it wants to see go ahead, and so far, that’s what Boards of Inquiry have done.

If the Board rules that the project should not go ahead, it will have made the right decision. And if it rules otherwise, we still have other legal avenues open to us.

You keep saying the Government is behind this project. Do all political parties support it?

Absolutely not! In fact, five parties have stated their opposition to a Basin Reserve flyover: Labour, the Greens, New Zealand First, the Mana Movement and United Future. It’s entirely possible that the Government that emerges following the 2014 General Election may be opposed to a Basin Reserve flyover going ahead.

How can I help?

We’ve listed a number of ways, but the two most important things you can do are:

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:

Grant Robertson asserts his opposition to the proposed flyover

Posted on by galleryatstb

The following is an excerpt written by Grant Robertson for the November 2013 edition of the Mt Victoria Newsletter.

Basin flyover not a done deal

Residents in Mt Cook, Mt Victoria, Newtown and the whole Wellington area are justifiably concerned about the Basin Reserve flyover. The final decision to build a flyover at the Basin Reserve is currently with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), but the government and New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) seem determined to pursue spending $90 million despite 83% of submitters opposing it.

Both Annette King, MP for Rongotai, and I oppose the Basin flyover. It is a bad idea and not an answer to the frustration some people feel about traffic congestion at this one location in Wellington. 

NZTA appears to be following the instructions of the government that has no smart solutions for improving the way people and freight move around New Zealand.

The EPA is requiring that anyone who submitted attend meetings with the NZTA to “resolve concerns”, even if they noted in their submission that they don’t wish to be heard in person. The significance of these meetings on the final decision is unknown because they have never before happened in a Board of Inquiry process. 

The Board of Inquiry will begin the hearings on 22 January* and the decision is due by May 2014. Labour has promised that we will do whatever we can to stop the flyover, and support a transportation system within and around Wellington that is efficient, promotes public transport, and helps protect our environment.

My electorate office telephone is 801 8079 and I am always happy to hear your comments on this or any other issue affecting the Mt Victoria community. 

*The Board of Inquiry’s latest indicative timetable shows the hearings beginning on Monday 27 January.