“THE tunnel option must be considered for the Basin Reserve,” says the CEO of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.
Charles Finny has got behind the idea of a “cut and cover” tunnel to solve the Basin’s traffic congestion, after it was revealed the government would use the same technique for Memorial Park upgrades.
“I would much rather than separating the Basin Reserve with a flyover, we use a tunnel – it’s more aesthetically pleasing as well,” he says. “If the government are prepared to do one under Memorial Park, it’s something we need to look at for the Basin. We’ve seen with the inner-city bypass what a huge mistake not tunnelling was.”
But this tunnelling idea did not arise solely out of the leaked Memorial Park plan.
Wellington group the Architectural Centre suggested the idea at the beginning of the year, which was covered in Capital Times on February 3.
At the time, the New Zealand Transport Agency said it wouldn’t consider the idea.
“It would be a major engineering challenge to build a tunnel under the Basin Reserve – the ground conditions are very difficult and the water table is very high. It would also be a very expensive solution, and the necessary funding is not available,” said Rob Whight, Wellington state highways manager.
But Finny says things have changed since Memorial Park made the option a reality.
NZTA did not reply to requests for comment at the time of print.
President of the Architectural Centre Guy Marriage is glad NZTA are finally considering options other than a flyover.
“Wellington need to focus on pleasant routes for pedestrians and the current Basin Reserve and Memorial Park are very difficult,” he says. The Architectural Centre has developed a plan for the Basin Reserve, which will feature a simpler, less invasive roading scheme with no traffic overpass. Our scheme works with the land, not against it, and will enable parks to be developed to reduce the current growing amount of asphalt.”
Marriage says the NZTA now needs to focus on developing a route for urban trams to be integrated into the Kent Terrace and Adelaide Road traffic corridor, and ultimately connect Wellington CBD to the Airport. Perhaps they’ll listen this time.