Before a Board of Inquiry Basin Bridge Proposal Summary Of

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

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;

 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

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

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.

3.22 It is a key part of this Project that the overall scheme includes measures directed particularly at providing for and enabling much better public transport connections with faster and more reliable travel times in both directions around the Basin Reserve between Kent and Cambridge Terraces and Adelaide Road.

3.23 For southbound travel, these benefits include not only the gains from lessened traffic flows and associated reduced congestion and delays, but also from the bus priority lanes to be provided from Kent Terrace leading through the Paterson Street intersection and on to Adelaide Road.

5 GWRC, Public Transport Spine Study, September 2013

3.24 Equivalent gains are also to be made in the northbound direction with priority lanes enabling priority for buses from Adelaide Road travelling around and through Sussex Street and on to Cambridge Terrace.

3.25 As the agreed delivery programme giving effect to the RLTP, the WRLTP sets out a schedule for delivery of all the significant transport projects planned in the Wellington region over the coming three year period, their estimated costs, and the intended basis of funding.

3.26 The Basin Bridge project is listed seventh in the 2012-15 ranking. The status of the six preceding projects can be briefly summarised as follows:

Mt Victoria Tunnel – safety improvements Completed Ngauranga to Petone cycleway/walkway Investigations progressing Adelaide Road Improvements Completed SH1 Widening of Ruahine Street/Wellington Road Investigations progressing Electronic Integrated Ticketing System Investigations progressing SH1 Inner City Bypass Intersection Optimisation Under construction SH1 (RoNS) Basin Reserve Improvements Applications lodged

3.27 With the appropriate approvals, work on the Basin Bridge project would commence this year.

4.1 As will be apparent from its strategic purpose, the Basin Bridge Project relates to and is connected with other related parts of the transportation network,

4.2 These include: Initially:  the Buckle Street underpass currently under construction, and  the SH1 inner city intersection optimisation works now being implemented.

And going forward;  support for and enabling of the step-change improvement sought for the public transport network serving Newtown and Kilbirnie  duplication of the Mt Victoria tunnel and its connection to Cobham Drive to and from the Airport  the wider upgrades of SH1 within the Wellington RoNS project including duplication of the Terrace Tunnel, and  strategic and logistical support for the Adelaide Road Precinct development envisioned by Wellington City Council.

4.3 In addition, and alongside the Transport Agency’s objectives in developing the Ngauranga to Wellington Airport Corridor and strengthening its east-west connections across the northern edge of the Basin Reserve, the WCC’s Urban Development Strategy included as part of the Council’s Long-Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) sets an overall framework for managing growth and change in the city. Its approach is to direct growth to where the resulting benefits are greatest.

4.4 As part of this forward pattern, more intensive mixed-use development is to be encouraged in key growth areas along a ‘growth spine’ running from Johnsonville through the city centre to Newtown and Kilbirnie.

4.5 The Strategy notes the northern Adelaide Road location adjoining the Basin Reserve has particular advantages in being able to support such increased levels of residential and employment growth. It is within walking distance of the central business district, the hospital and the Newtown shops, has excellent access to public transport, and is located on the key arterial route to the southern suburbs.

4.6 The Strategy also identifies that a particular component of the plan centres on enhancing the effectiveness and attraction of Adelaide Road in terms of greatly improved public transport services, and more provisions to encourage walking and cycling.

4.7 In my view, an important aspect in considering this Basin Bridge Project is the manner in which the Council’s ability to successfully deliver on these Community Plan intentions depends to a significant extent on the construction and completion of the Basin Bridge and its associated works delivering better capacity and much improved connections between Kent and Cambridge Terraces in the north and the Adelaide Road corridor through to Newtown in the south.

5.1 A feature of the present levels of traffic flow through this area of the network centres on the manner in which the prospects for on-going growth and better levels of service have been increasingly constrained by the now clearly evident inadequacies of the present street and intersection layout.

5.2 This has had the effect of increased congestion, reduced efficiency, wasted time and fuel, increased emissions and poor levels of safety and service affecting all aspects of travel.

5.3 A lack of continuing growth is because the Mount Victoria tunnel has reached its practicable traffic-carrying capacity with any additional demand meaning longer peaks, so that the congested times have become longer.

5.4 The resulting practical effects are seen in longer, slower periods of peak flow and spreading delays on all of the associated approaches.

5.5 These increasing levels of congestion have adverse effects on all traffic in the vicinity meaning that drivers to and from the Mount Victoria tunnel and the eastern suburbs are delayed with queues that then equally capture travellers using the north-south links to and from Adelaide Road and Newtown.

5.6 It is this self-defeating mutual capture of traffic movements adversely affecting both the east-west and the north-south travel needs that points directly to the solution in the form of the bridge and associated road improvements sought in these present applications.

5.7 In the face of these matters, the principal gains brought by construction of the Basin Bridge Project are:

 an immediate reduction in the volume of traffic circulating around the Basin Reserve by about a third

 with most of the traffic coming from the existing Mt Victoria tunnel being handled via the new Bridge, the existing traffic signals at the foot of Paterson Street can then give the majority of green time to southbound movements so that there is then little interruption to the smooth flow of traffic travelling through the area between Kent Terrace and Adelaide Road

 the reduction in the volumes of circulating traffic similarly enables increased priority, reduced delays and higher levels of service for northbound traffic entering from Adelaide Road

 such changes particularly enable and support a whole range of options in the provision of significantly increased priority for all public transport movements

 together with the delivery of reduced delays and improved levels of service to the benefit of cyclists and pedestrians.

5.8 Going forward, the Basin Bridge Project enables and provides for the volume changes that would follow duplication of the Mt Victoria tunnel and the further development of the corridor while at the same time also serving the forward ‘step- change’ options for improved public transport and the higher levels of service required for cyclists and pedestrians.

6.1 In evidence expressed on behalf of Save the Basin and the Mt Victoria Residents’ Association, Mr Young together with others, regards the retention of an at-grade roundabout at the Basin Reserve as in some way being what he views as a ‘good strategic fit’ within the Transport Agency’s wider corridor plans.

6.2 I disagree. I note that a series of such tactical changes have been designed and implemented over past years involving alterations to traffic islands, changes to traffic signals and road-markings, the provision of set-down areas for schools, facilities for cyclists and pedestrians and the like. These have brought some associated improvements to the traffic-carrying performance of the area but the needs now being addressed with the Transport Agency, GWRC and the WCC working collaboratively in bringing an integrated approach to transport network development in Wellington extend much further.

6.3 In this regard and when the transport network as a whole is considered and an overall strategy prepared, the needs at the Basin Reserve are much wider than just improving its traffic-carrying capacity. The RLTS points to an overall strategy as I set out in section 5 of my EIC noting particularly the forward vision for the Ngauranga to Wellington Airport Corridor Plan being directed at strengthening key transport elements in the City. These are particularly set out as comprising:

 high quality and frequent passenger transport spine;  highly accessible ‘activity’ or shopping streets;  a reliable and accessible ‘ring’ or bypass route; and  interconnected and convenient local street, walking, cycling and passenger transport networks.

6.4 I note that while inter-connected in the sense of providing for the transportation needs of the community in terms of delivering the required multi-faceted,

convenient, and efficient level of transport amenity for users across all aspects of the network, these four transport elements are distinct in terms of their application in servicing particularly identified needs. As set out, these four elements involve the passenger transport spine, the ‘activity’ or shopping streets, the delivery of a reliable and accessible ‘ring’ or bypass route, and the fourth category of interconnected and convenient local street, walking, cycling and passenger transport networks.

6.5 While they may share common routes, each has its particular requirements in terms of its use and operation, and in terms of its spatial layout and connections. For the corridor plan, the issue at the Basin Reserve centres on a facility that properly meets the levels of service required for each of these otherwise overlapping individual needs.

6.6 In this regard, the point can be made again that the outcomes required of the Basin Bridge Project extend well beyond simply improving its traffic-carrying capacity.

6.7 Rather, its purpose extends to being integrated with and serving all of these related projects with the GWRC, WCC, and the Transport Agency appropriately working in a collaborative way to ensure a properly integrated overall approach to transport network development in Wellington. A simple capacity-related focus for the Basin Reserve in the manner and form Mr Young suggests is in my view, short-sighted and is inconsistent with the Project objectives.

7.1 Overall, these applications currently before the Board represent what I consider to be the outcome of a lengthy, carefully considered and for that matter an ongoing process of investigation and assessment during which the NZTA, the GWRC and the WCC have conferred and worked closely together.

7.2 For the GWRC, these needs centre on being able to deliver the major ‘step change’ required in their delivery of public transport services represented by the PTSS reports and recommendations.

7.3 For the WCC, the needs centre on providing for an increased living intensity along Adelaide Road and Newtown together with the requirements of a regional hospital alongside delivering practical improvements in cycling and walking.

7.4 For the Transport Agency, the particular objectives centre on improving the resilience, efficiency and reliability of the State highway network, supporting

regional economic growth and productivity, supporting mobility and modal choices within Wellington City, and facilitating improvements to the local road transport network in Wellington City in the vicinity of the Basin Reserve.

8.1 As an overall summary, it is my view that this Project represents a significant milestone in completing the SH1 route across Te Aro in the manner intended by the RLTS. Going further, it provides for the ‘step-change’ improvements intended by GWRC in its delivery of public transport services to Newtown and Kilbirnie, and also serves the forward-thinking plans for a north-south transport “spine” joining the Central Area through to the Adelaide Road development precinct, Wellington Hospital and Newtown as intended by Wellington City Council.

8.2 In this regard, it is my opinion that this Basin Bridge Project is an important strategic addition to the transport network needed to serve the ongoing growth and future needs of Wellington city and the region.

Peter Terence McCombs

11 February 2014