Porirua and Kāpiti Mayors welcome appeal of Basin Bridge decision

Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett and Kapiti Mayor Ross Church have applauded the decision of New Zealand Transport Agency to appeal the Board of Inquiry’s rejection of the Basin Bridge application.

The Transport Agency has lodged an appeal to the High Court on a number of points of law in order to provide direction for the future planning of transport infrastructure, both around the Basin and throughout New Zealand.

“We applaud this move because the project has many benefits for the wider region. This is about an efficient economic highway that separates local and regional traffic between Wellington airport and the Manawatu/Rangitikei which in reality is a conduit for prosperity for the lower North Island.

“Easy access to Wellington Airport and hospital is vital to Porirua residents, not to mention those on the Kāpiti Coast and the Hutt Valley,” Mr Leggett says.

Mayor Ross Church says the new MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway will be much more effective if there is continuous traffic flow from Kāpiti.

“An efficient highway which allows traffic to flow unimpeded from Kāpiti through Wellington city to key facilities such as the airport is really important and this can’t be achieved at the Wellington end if there is congestion around the Basin Reserve.

“It’s crazy spending over a billion dollars on a Road of National Significance from the airport to Levin and not solve the worst bottleneck in the city, when there’s no viable alternative.

“This is about looking at the whole region and the obvious economic spin offs of eliminating all the bottlenecks and not just shifting them further down the line.”

Mayor Leggett says a key concern was also the stymieing of projects that flow on from the Basin Bridge decision, such as better pedestrian/cycleway access, improved public transport systems and the double tunnelling of Mt Victoria, which is at capacity.

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