Holiday highway battle heats up
The battle over the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway” seems to be heating up, after route announcements earlier this week for the Puhoi to Warkworth section. One interesting thing that was left off the 3D video of the proposal was any interchange to allow locals to access the new road from Puhoi and Mahurangi.…
12 Comments “Operation Lifesaver” discussed in parliament
I’m never quite sure whether to be pleased or completely freaked out when something that I largely wrote ends up being discussed in parliament’s question time. Thanks to Peter for pointing out a discussion on the Puhoi-Wellsford Road in parliament yesterday that ended up discussing the “Operation Lifesaver” alternative to the hugely expensive “holiday highway”.…
Holiday highway advances
The next step in the process of constructing the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway” road of national significance was taken today, with NZTA announcing a preferred route alignment between Puhoi and Warkworth. Interestingly, it seems that geotechnical difficulties are delaying Warkworth to Wellsford section, so it might be a while longer before we find out the preferred alignment for that part of the road.…
How to pay for these rail projects?
Somewhat unsurprisingly, many commentators have been quick to write off Len Brown’s transport vision for Auckland as impossibly expensive, ‘pie in the sky’ aspirations. Some of the criticism has come from predictable sources, like David Farrar’s Kiwiblog:
Len may think he has a mandate for the rail – and he does if the ratepayers of Auckland who voted for him are willing to pay for it.…
Holiday Highway & economic impacts
The debate over the Puhoi-Wellsford holiday highway seems to have reached fever pitch today, with a million different interpretations of what Len Brown and John Key discussed regarding the project over dinner yesterday floating around the internet. Added to the mix, the Green Party seem to have come across the “Operation Lifesaver” that I helped put together as a more cost-effective alternative to the holiday highway.…
Len Brown & the Holiday Highway
There’s an article in today’s Herald that effectively reports on Len Brown’s meeting with John Key yesterday. It seems that they discussed the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway” in fairly lengthy detail:
Super City mayor-elect Len Brown last night gave his support to the Government’s $1.6 billion “holiday highway” from Puhoi to Wellsford despite promising Aucklanders his first priority would be improving rail services.”Clearly…
Parliament discusses Auckland’s transport future
There was a very interesting question and answer session in parliament today on how the Auckland local government elections may affect transport priorities. A transcript of the discussion can be read here.
There are a number of matters that are interesting to comment on here.…
Operation Lifesaver – where things are at
A month or so ago I helped present, on behalf of the Campaign for Better Transport, what we considered to be a more cost-effective and safety conscious option for upgrading State Highway 1 between Puhoi and Wellsford than the offline four-lane highway – often called the “holiday highway” – that is NZTA and the government’s current preferred option.…
Puhoi & the holiday highway
There’s an interesting article in today’s NZ Herald about local opposition in Puhoi to losing access to SH1 if/when the Puhoi-Wellsford “holiday highway” is constructed. Here’s an extract:
The little town of Puhoi first learned of what residents consider its death sentence two months ago.…
CBD Rail Tunnel: crunch time
Preliminary findings of the business case for the CBD Rail Tunnel should be released within the next month. Of course we all have our fingers crossed that the number-crunching confirms most people’s strong belief that the project is cost-effective and well worth the rather significant $1.5 billion pricetag.…
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