Draft approval for Transmission Gully

Stuff reports:

Wellington’s Transmission Gully has been given draft approval, almost a century after it was first mooted.

In a draft decision released today an independent board of inquiry, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency said it would approve resource consent for the $1 billion, 27km inland highway from Linden to north of Paekakariki.

It will release its final decision in mid-June after feedback. That decision is binding and can be appealed against only on a point of law.

Today’s draft decision marks the latest hurdle in a project which – if and when completed – will be over a century from inception to realisation.

An inland alternative route out of Wellington was first mooted in 1919 and has been under serious investigation since the 1980s.

If only it had been built a generation ago. But better late than never.  Four lanes from the airport to Levin will make a huge difference to transport in the region.