There were some videos from the NZTA that admin posted around the beginning of the year looking at the Puhoi to Wellsford RoNS and there was also a video of the Waterview Connection that was posted last year. Looking around online it appears there are a few more for other RoNS projects that were released.

First up we have a newer version of the Waterview Connection which is a little more detailed that the original (I quite like the Hendon Rd footbridge)

Next up we have North and Southbound animations of the Victoria Park Tunnel project

Heading South East we have the Tauranga Eastern Link

Lastly here is some videos showing what Transmission Gulley would look like, the cuts through some of those hills are huge and the of those embankments are pretty high. This will massively change the geography of the area.

One thing you notice is that in all videos is that their magically isn’t any congestion, funny that.

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    1. Haha – if thats what your into 😉

      I posted these after I saw the transmission gulley one and was shocked by the size of cuts so had a look to see what other videos there were for the proposed RoNS. There is also a couple of ones for very specific parts of the bypass around Cambridge but they weren’t as interesting as these ones.

  1. No buslanes off the Harbour bridge…. The scale of the Waterview works looks like a classic case of ‘advance stupidity’ to me….. the cornucopian dreamers are so still in charge, looks like they prefer their collapses to be sudden and violent, ah well, onward…

    Couldn’t bring myself to watch anymore, but a couple of thoughts: will be unpleasant driving in those tunnels, meh. Good tunneling construction practice for the CBDRL though…..

      1. As well as the comma weirdness, the tag cloud has burst its border and is all over the comments. Firefox 4.0.1 on Win Vista if that makes a difference.

        Might as well add a transport-related comment: Those are big cuttings on Transmission Gully. Why isn’t it cheaper to tunnel? That would involve moving an awful lot less dirt and not having to stabilise so much hillside. Is it purely the difference in capital expense between a TBM and a squadron of bulldozers?

        1. Way cheaper of course to not build the thing at all….

          What is the basic math on these things anyhow? if it costs 2 bil. to build at a discount rate of 8% we need to seriously accept that there will be 160million generated every year in time saved, and fuel not burned, and other depreciation just to break even? So for these big projects, including the CBDRL, for them to have any sort of positive economic outcome at all we should really expect say another 10% to 12%on top of the capex. So, opportunity cost of capital 8% + return 12% on 2bil. = 400million a year. I feel a Tui billboard coming on. Tricky to measure and surely induced traffic is the big elephant in the room here? As what if even 5% of the trips on the new megaproject are new, burning fuel that otherwise wouldn’t have been burnt, or imported before? Double negative then. Well it would depend on the economic value of that trip wouldn’t it? What if i decide to visit my mother, zero economic benefit [marginal increase in net happiness too], before perhaps I just used to ring, or horror of horrors took public transport, even an electric train if there is one? I can’t see Transmission Gully or Puford getting anywhere close to breakeven let alone into positive return territory. I’m no economist so help me out here, perhaps trucking is so magically transformative as an activity so if it is sped up slightly suddenly thousands of new jobs materialise, so all gains in trucking productivity are passed on to the industries served? And what if [!] the key input into road transit goes up over time and wipes out the productivity gain from the faster road, will this not make that big investment a very poor gamble indeed?

  2. one of those videos was enough for me, the Waterview intersection is completely insane. It’s crazy the sums that are being blown on these projects.

  3. I’ll reiterate – those road cuttings are huge. It’s like having another Ngauranga Gorge when we don’t have to. It has got to be an incredibly silly project to advance.

  4. “One thing you notice is that in all videos is that their magically isn’t any congestion,funny that.”

    Natural result of building large capacity for a peak oil future. Quite realistic, insofar 😉

  5. But where are the impoverished cyclists and ragged ponies, wearily making their way up the motorway? (I’m assuming that the real explanation here is magic which has destroyed the workings of the combustion engine just after the end of construction).

  6. On a side note, who did they get to do the Transmission Gully render? It’s awful – especially compared to the quality of the Tauranga Eastern Link render, and the waterview connection render.

    And yeah, am agreed about the scale of the earthworks for Transmission Gully – It’s my personal favourite of the RONS (given that it’s the way that directly affects transport for me). I had NO idea the earthworks would be so staggeringly large – ridiculous, really, when you consider that part of the justification for building the damned road is that there isn’t another route into Wellington during an earthquake. I doubt any stabilisation of those hills would do a heck of a lot of good in a sizeable quake.

  7. On another note, I notice there isn’t any sort of Render of the Kapiti/Sandhills Expressway project between McKays and Peka Peka. I presume partially because they’ve had a lot of difficulty (until recently) confirming the route, but a niggling, cynical part of me also wonders whether they will release one until the LAST moment they can – due to how many homes will be affected by the project…

    1. Oddly they just posted one today of Mckays to Peka Peka, around the same time I had arranged for this post to go up

  8. I’m really not sure what’s up with the formatting issues. I don’t recall changing anything.

    Regarding the videos above, wow Transmission Gully involves an absolutely insane amount of earthworks!

  9. I had no idea the cuts on Transmission Gully were so big. They are practically going to level whole hills! No wonder its going to be so expensive. I can see the budget for that one blowing out big time.

  10. Victoria Park tunnel and Waterview Connection are great. Dont know much about Tauranga Link. Transmission Gully is horrible.

    1. Interesting that with the Vic Park Tunnel project the viaduct will still be divided into two sets of two lanes. I think this is a good idea as the left two lanes will essentially end with the SH16 connections while the other lanes will go south. It means if you’re in the outer two lanes you essentially have a dedicated corridor without people getting on and off almost all the way from Onewa Road to Gillies Ave (except through St Mary’s Bay).

      1. They also appear to be extending the moveable barrier all the way to the viaduct. There was another video showing its operation throughout the day and I saw something today saying that they needed the space where it is currently housed for the motorway so it will now be housed under the viaduct.

      2. You would need to pretty much rebuild the whole road deck of the viaduct (probably as much effort as building a new one from scratch) if you wanted the four lanes over it connected.

    2. Not so sure on Waterview being “great”. The SH16/SH20 intersection is ugly and I am opposed to any general purpose traffic lane widening of SH16.

      And I lay claim to the name “Andrew” as I am pretty sure I was here first.

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