Before a Board of Inquiry Basin Bridge Proposal Summary Of
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Before a Board of Inquiry Basin Bridge Proposal Under the Resource Management Act 1991 (the Act) In the matter of a Board of Inquiry appointed under section 149J of the Act to consider the New Zealand Transport Agency's notice of requirement and five resource consent applications for the Basin Bridge Proposal. Summary of Evidence of Peter Terence McCombs for the New Zealand Transport Agency (Transportation) Solicitors acting: A F D Cameron / A M B Green / Level 9 F R Wedde 79 Boulcott Street PO Box 25-306 Contact: F R Wedde Featherston Street DDI: +64 4 498 0847 Wellington Email: [email protected] Ph +64 4 499 9824 Fax +64 4 499 9822 1.1 The evidence I have prepared in this matter is focused on the strategic need for and transportation purpose of the Project. This includes: A detailed review and appraisal of the project in terms of the need for and strategic purpose of what is proposed, Its fit with other related parts of the transportation network, The associated traffic patterns and forward expectations, and The manner in which the project will serve the wider community and the region. 1.2 The following provides an overview summary of these principal points. 2.1 The principal objectives for the Project are set out as follows: Objective 1: To improve the resilience, efficiency and reliability of the State highway network: by providing relief from congestion of State Highway 1 between Paterson Street and Tory Street; by improving the safety for traffic and persons using this part of the State Highway 1 corridor; and, by increasing the capacity of the State Highway corridor between Paterson Street and Tory Street. Objective 2: To support regional economic growth and productivity: by contributing to the enhanced movement of people and freight through Wellington City; and, by in particular improving access to Wellington’s CBD, employment centre, airport and hospital. Objective 3: To support mobility and modal choices within Wellington City: by providing opportunities for improved public transport, cycling and walking; and, by not constraining opportunities for future transport developments. Objective 4: To improve the efficiency of the road transport network in Wellington City by providing the separation of State highway through traffic from local traffic in the vicinity of the Basin Reserve.1 1 Opus, Basin Bridge Project: Technical Report 4: Assessment of Traffic and Transportation Effects, p19 1 2.2 Importantly and as will be evident, in encompassing the resilience, efficiency and reliability of the State highway alongside supporting economic growth and productivity, better mobility and widened modal choice, and network improvements benefiting Wellington City, these objectives extend well beyond representing just a single traffic-oriented focus. 3.1 The Transport Agency is seeking through this Project and its related works to improve the resilience, safety, efficiency and reliability of SH1 to support mobility and modes of transport choices within Wellington City, to improve operating safety to the benefit of all users, and to improve the efficiency of the road network in Wellington by separating westbound SH1 traffic from local traffic in the vicinity of the Basin Reserve roundabout. 3.2 The need for and provision of the Basin Bridge Project responds to and is anticipated by the series of statutory planning documents comprising the Wellington Regional Land Transport Plan that together set out and define forward transportation planning in the Wellington region 3.3 The Wellington RLTS developed as part of the Regional Land Transport Plan describes how the transportation needs of the region are to be met through the next 30 years. As an integral part of its preparation and adoption, the RLTS responds to the region’s projected economic and population growth, and the need to manage anticipated increases in travel demand. 3.4 In this regard, the RLTS stands alongside the Wellington Regional Strategy and the Wellington Regional Policy Statement to ensure the provision of transport is appropriately integrated with the delivery of land use outcomes. 3.5 The RLTS particularly identifies a number of key outcomes which the region seeks to achieve over the long term. These key outcomes listed for the RLTS are given in order of priority or importance for the region as being: increased peak period public transport mode share; increased mode share for pedestrians and cyclists; reduced greenhouse gas emissions; reduced severe road congestion; improved regional road safety; improved land use and transport integration; 2 improved regional freight efficiency. 3.6 Given the strategic contribution of the Basin Bridge project and its key position and role across Te Aro between the Terrace and Mount Victoria tunnels, successful delivery of these desired key outcomes leads in my view, to an emphasis on the functional form and detail of the works. 3.7 As to the overall purpose and intended outcome from these initiatives, the RLTS goes further by way of articulating its forward expectations for the inner city as being: Access to and between key destinations such as Wellington City Central Business District and other regional centres, CentrePort, Wellington International Airport and Wellington Regional Hospital will be quick, easy, reliable and safe. Effective safety measures, behaviour change campaigns and other interventions will help to ensure that no one is killed or seriously injured when travelling within or through the region. 2 3.8 The Buckle Street underpass currently being built and the proposed Basin Bridge intended from these applications are projects that contribute to and form part of this overall context 3.9 Under the heading “Implementing the RLTS”, the forward vision in giving effect to this Ngauranga to Wellington Airport Corridor is described in the RLTS in the following terms: Along the Ngauranga to Wellington Airport Corridor, access to key destinations such as CentrePort, Wellington City CBD, Newtown Hospital and the International Airport will be efficient, reliable, quick and easy. Priority will be given to passenger transport through this corridor, particularly during the peak period. Passenger transport will provide a very high quality, reliable and safe service along the Wellington City growth spine and other key commuter routes. The road network will provide well for those trips which cannot be made by alternative modes and will allow freight to move freely through the corridor. Traffic congestion through the corridor will be managed at levels that balance the need for access against the ability to fully provide for peak demands due to community impacts and cost 2 RLTS, Chapter 2, p2 3 constraints. Maximum use of the existing network will be achieved by removal of key bottlenecks on the road and rail networks. 3 3.10 It can be noted that the mention in this forward vision of maximum use of the existing network being achieved through removal of “key bottlenecks” is consistent with the intentions of the Basin Bridge project in addressing such a bottleneck and its limiting effect within a key area of the “existing” network. 3.11 Completion of the Basin Bridge project is in my view, important to the successful delivery of these intended outcomes. 3.12 The principal need for and the functional form of the improvements to be made at the Basin Reserve have been identified from the wider investigations directed at improving State highway travel between Ngauranga and Wellington Airport. 3.13 The Corridor Plan itself aims to strengthen four key transport elements in the City being: a high quality and frequent passenger transport “spine”; highly accessible and attractive ‘activity’ or shopping streets; a reliable and accessible ‘ring’ or bypass route for vehicles; and interconnected and convenient local street, walking, cycling and passenger transport networks. 4 3.14 The investigations undertaken through the period 2006 to 2008 gave particular attention to the matter of providing for and enabling an important and much needed improvement in the transportation infrastructure serving the strategic needs of SH1 and its connection to and from the Mount Victoria Tunnel and Wellington Airport, while also delivering a significant gain for wider community needs. 3.15 This portion of the city transportation network has long been recognised as serving strategically important needs. 3.16 These arise from the combination of its position within the wider regional connection leading to and from the Mount Victoria tunnel and the airport, its associated key connections at the southern edge of the inner city, and the need to equally provide for road and public transport routes joining the inner city 3 GWRC, Wellington Regional Land Transport Strategy 2010-40, Appendix 4, p91 4 GWRC, Ngauranga to Wellington Airport Corridor Plan, October 2008, p2 4 through to Adelaide Road, the Regional Hospital, Newtown and beyond. All are important to the wider functioning of the regional network and the city. 3.17 Importantly, and recognising the strategic nature of the location, three bodies cooperated in undertaking and completing these investigations being the NZ Transport Agency, the Greater Wellington Regional Council, and the Wellington City Council. 3.18 The resulting mutually agreed findings and recommendations from these investigations were in turn then considered and formally adopted by Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) in the form of the Ngauranga to Airport Corridor Plan in October 2008. 3.19 Through the past ten years, and particularly through work done in progressive updates of the Wellington Regional Land Transport Plan, other wider studies have confirmed that the delivery, quality, and convenience of public transport links and services across Wellington City need to be improved. 3.20 These investigations and findings are set out in the current Public Transport Spine Study reports.5 3.21 A particular area where the need for improvement has been especially identified is in relation to the north-south public transport corridor at the Basin Reserve joining Courtenay Place and Kent and Cambridge Terraces through to Adelaide Road, and to Newtown and the southern suburbs beyond.