It could see more than 200 parking spaces removed.<\/p>\n
NZTA\u2019s regional manager of system design Kesh Keshaboina describes the design as \u201csignificant\u201d, with the potential to have a major impact on Wellington\u2019s transport infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Public meetings on the proposals are to be held in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Two new tunnels proposed<\/p>\n
The documents propose building a new two-lane eastbound tunnel \u2013 for traffic to the airport \u2013 to the north of Mt Victoria\u2019s existing one.<\/p>\n
The new tunnel \u201cwill affect some land in the Town Belt\u201d and would include a 3.6m wide shared walking and cycling pathway.<\/p>\n
The current tunnel would become two westbound lanes into the city.<\/p>\n
Map shows proposed Wellington highway upgrades including new tunnels and Basin routes. Photo \/ NZTA<\/p>\n
Both Ruahine St and Wellington Rd on the eastern side of Mt Victoria Tunnel would widen to become two lanes in each direction, a move NZTA said was critical to alleviating the current bottleneck at Kilbirnie heading into the city.<\/p>\n
NZTA said a section of land at the northern end of Kilbirnie Park would need to be bought to accommodate this.<\/p>\n
A new Hataitai Park Bridge over SH1 near Goa St is also proposed.<\/p>\n
A second tunnel is also proposed to be built at the Terrace Tunnel for southbound traffic into the city.<\/p>\n
The new tunnel would be built to the east of the existing Terrace Tunnel, which would become a dedicated route for northbound traffic only.<\/p>\n
The walking track from Kumutoto Lane to the grassed area above the tunnel will need to be removed to accommodate the widening for the second tunnel, NZTA said.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Midday Report, Wellington mayor Andrew Little said he supported the plan overall, but that discussion was needed.<\/p>\n
People losing homes and businesses had been foreshadowed for some time, but there would also be \u201cmuch higher\u201d traffic on streets not used to it.<\/p>\n
The project would also take two hectares of the Town Belt \u2013 a \u201cvery special feature\u201d of Wellington, Little said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have to talk with them, there\u2019s going to be some very careful discussions about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two-way traffic around Basin Reserve floated<\/p>\n
The proposed design for the Basin Reserve is described as a \u201cmajor roading upgrade\u201d.<\/p>\n
It would affect multiple surrounding roads and see the current one-way, clockwise traffic move in both directions.<\/p>\n
NZTA said the existing walking routes around and through the Basin would be maintained.<\/p>\n
But the Home of Compassion Creche in Pukeahu War Memorial Park will need to be moved, NZTA said.<\/p>\n
Wellington’s proposed new Mt Victoria tunnel’s western entrance (left) and eastern entrance (right). Photo \/ NZTA<\/p>\n
The documents also show Vivian St (heading towards the airport) and Karo Drive (heading out of the city) widening to three lanes.<\/p>\n
Karo Drive would merge back to two lanes before the Terrace Tunnel.<\/p>\n
An online survey to submit feedback on the proposals opens today.<\/p>\n
Public information days are due to be held in the coming weeks, with the first meeting scheduled for November 23 at the Harbourside Markets.<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It could see more than 200 parking spaces removed. NZTA\u2019s regional manager of system design Kesh Keshaboina describes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[94938,26755,10048,117,111,43,139,69,16488,2170,36199,11743,2821,52,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-139597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-3b","9":"tag-highway","10":"tag-mt","11":"tag-new","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-nzta","17":"tag-plan","18":"tag-tunnel","19":"tag-unveils","20":"tag-victoria","21":"tag-wellington","22":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}