In 2001 the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) began considering how to connect the Wellington foothills motorway to the planned second tunnel through Mount Victoria. The new tunnel was to be located slightly north of the present tunnel, and parallel to it.

14 years later, after years of bickering and court cases, the proposed bridged highway on the north side of the Basin Reserve was defeated by the decision of the High Court not to overturn the decision of Commissioners to decline the resource consent required to proceed. While the Mayor of Wellington at the time, and several Councillors expressed pleasure at the decision, the only positive solutions suggested seemed to be “mass transit/light rail” and “cycleways” without a clear strategy or justification for either.

In 2016 NZTA reached an agreement with Wellington City Council (WCC) and Greater Wellington City Council (GWRC) to form a joint planning group to devise and implement solutions to the growing congestion problems in Wellington City. The group became known as Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM).

Karori Residents Association is concerned about LGWM and believes that it is urgent that WCC asserts its position as the planning authority for the city and seeks a significant re-focus of the work of LGWM.

Read the report written by Bill Guest, senior advisor to Karori Residents Association, around the Let's Get Wellington Moving plan here.

William (Bill) Guest

Bill is a retired civil engineer who has lived in Karori for 26 years. He graduated with a B.E. (Civil) from the University of Canterbury in 1968, and later earned an M.E. (Civil) (First Class) from the University of Auckland in 1976. This postgraduate degree was focussed on transportation engineering. He later completed Diplomas in Business Administration and in Business Computing from Massey University.

Bill spent most of his career in transport, much of it in or associated with railways, including senior management roles. The last seven years of his career were with Veolia Transport (now Transdev) in Auckland, first as Safety Manager than then as Strategy and Network Development Manager. In these roles, Bill was part of the management team that overhauled the rail passenger operations in Auckland.

Bill retired in early 2011 and returned to his home in Karori. After spending some time renovating the house, he became interested in local Karori issues. Subsequently he joined KRA as Infrastructure Coordinator and has spent a lot of time (with assistance from other members) on drainage, transport planning, and public transport matters.

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