Councillors Act To Delay Construction Of The Controversial & Piecemeal Golden Mile Project
Seven Wellington City Councillors have lodged a Notice of Motion to delay work on the Golden Mile until an integrated transport plan has been developed, including bus corridors, pedestrians, and cycleways.
The NoM has been lodged by Cllr Tony Randle (deputy chair WCC’s Audit and Risk committee) and seconded by Cllr Tim Brown (chair of WCC’s Environment and Infrastructure committee); the other signatories are Diane Calvert, Ray Chung, Sarah Free, Iona Pannett, and Nicola Young. They believe that locking in the final design and starting construction on the Golden Mile without plans for the parallel Second Public Transport Spine and cycleways is the wrong approach. The Notice of Motion will be presented to Council on Thursday, 6th June 2024.
‘This piecemeal approach risks compromising the future design of the transport corridors for buses and cyclists. Future changes needed to integrate bus services with other transport will be expensive, not least because construction would have already begun (such last-minute changes were a major cause of the Town Hall cost blowout)’, said Tony Randle.
Officers said the high-level design work on the Second Public Transport Spine can be done by September this year, and the routes for CBD cycleways and the traffic impact analysis should also be completed,’ said Tony Randle.