Cities need infrastructure to grow, but Roads of National Significance ain’t it
Tell the government that Wellington deserves better in the next two weeks!
Wellington needs more homes, in the right places. Our city is growing and we want to welcome new neighbours. City for People welcomes investment in high-quality infrastructure, so that we can build more homes. Wellington needs a transport network that serves life in the city rather than undermining it. It needs frequent and reliable buses, it needs cycle paths, and it needs footpaths. Better public and active transport options means more people can live in the heart of the city without needing a car.
But instead of investing in the infrastructure we need, the government wants to expand the state highway that cuts through the city with two new tunnels and a flyover into Hataitai. We think this is a bad idea. Some friends of the City for People campaign have put together information to help you take action, which we’re sharing with you because this matters for the future of our city.
You have until 11:59pm Sunday 14 December 2025 to tell the government that Wellington deserves better (see details below!)
– Finn and the City for People team
For years now, almost all transport projects in Wellington have seemed slow or stuck.
All of a sudden, one very specific project from Let’s Get Wellington Moving is getting the rockets put under it. That project: expanding the state highway through the city with two new tunnels and a whole bunch of big-build road stuff like a flyover into Hataitai.
After so long, many of us are saying, “hell, at least something is happening!” and there’s lots of “driving it through” “foot on the gas” language.
But for Wellington’s sake, it’s really worth us saying “Hey remember, this is what we, Wellington, really care about, and we want to see you respect that”.
This post sets out why it’s worth saying something - now, in the short window - and suggests some things that will make ripples.
This is not the project we need
Because this project, with the rockets under it, is the single stupidest of all the Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) projects – for many reasons including some you might not expect.
The cost of this project is truly bananas. Per kilometre it’s the most expensive roading project in the entire country. It’s $2.9-3.8 billion (with a B - looks like this).
And it’s all about a relatively small aspect of Wellington’s transport problems: private-car congestion at selected times.
It makes no attempt to fix what will make the most difference to people (and LGWM’s origin story): the bus-network that’s already at capacity and hamstrung by being stuck in general traffic.
Even just for general traffic congestion, this project is jumping to a platinum-plated mega project solution before we’ve tried all the other things first.
It could do irreparable harm to Wellington, just as we’re starting the transition to being a real city.
And the heart of it won’t even achieve what it’s supposed to.
It aims to “fix” traffic congestion by building a bigger road in the centre. Never, not ever, has this worked.
If you look at the numbers for how LGWM’s package was going to “fix traffic”, it wasn’t the very expensive road-building that was going to do the heavy lifting: it was congestion charging (digital infrastructure and some gantries) and the second spine for public transport (paint, signage, timetabling). And the costs for civil construction (which this expansion project is all about) have rocketed since then.
There are lots of flaws with the logic: smooth, faster-flowing traffic through the city centre while also somehow not worsening severance in Te Aro, and while also allowing lots of cars to turn on and off it…
Its Cost-Benefit Ratio is already low (even with the extra-low discount rate now allowed to be used) and the Inner City Bypass was found to have been probably not worth the money spent on it (we lose more than we gain from having it) so it’s highly likely this will be worse given its far greater costs. The opportunity cost of this public money is dismaying.
And it is highly likely to at least start. The proverbial rockets are lined up and they’re filled with high-octane political ego; out of all the extraordinarily expensive RONS projects, this is the one that is likeliest to get underway.
Take heart: absolutely it’s worth raising your voice now
There’s still a lot of surprisingly major design stuff yet to be negotiated between Wellington City Council and NZTA. The funding actually allocated so far is for “design, consenting and early works development”.
This negotiation space is where we, the public, can give them a solid steer: to minimise the harm this project inflicts on the city, and maximise the sweeteners around the edges.
Should this be up to us normies? No, of course not.
We should be able to rely on our officials to use their subject-matter expertise in the public good, and our democratic leaders to have our best interests at heart.
But the sheer disarray left by Let’s Get Wellington Moving, plus high-octane ministerial-ego rocket-fuel behind this project, means our local decision-makers need us to reorient their compasses for them, and reinvigorate their city mojo.
Here’s the gist: congestion charging might sort out much of the congestion anyway by itself!
Let’s lean into that first and then see if we need all this other cost.
The government has just changed the law to allow cities to do congestion charging. It’s likely to be a nudge (the price of a cup of coffee or less) to encourage people who want to drive their private car into the busy city centre to do so at a slightly different time, or to enter the centre another way - bus, or carpool, or walk or scoot or bike.
Because Wellington’s peak hours are really peaky, congestion is pretty bad for a short time (not bad in major city terms though). All the rest of the time we have plenty of road space.
All we need to do is flatten the peak a bit (like in COVID!) and we’ve eased the congestion problem that all this is allegedly about fixing.
It’ll work. Everywhere around the world that congestion charging has been used, where you go from no charging to some charging - even a little location, for a short window of each day - it meaningfully improves traffic congestion.
Let’s fix the network: turn all the other knobs first (like NZTA keeps telling everyone to do)
Good infrastructure planning, worldwide, says “try all the other cheaper things to fix your problem before you throw lots of money into building something new.” Our Infrastructure Commission says it, and who’s also been saying it for ages? Only our very own NZTA!
Here are the other things we should dial up to “fix congestion” before jumping to spending astronomical amounts on building more road space. (Fun fact: these were part of the original LGWM package but were excluded from the public engagement because they were too boring / too complex):
Easing general traffic congestion: travel demand-management to flatten the peak. Includes congestion charging but also other tools like parking management. It’s vastly cheaper than building new tunnels, and helps us make better use of the road space we already have. It works because motivating just a small percentage of the travelling public to change something about their travel choices - be it the time or vehicle/mode they travel by, and even just changing a little bit - makes a big difference.
Easing general traffic congestion and making bussing way better: unblock the bus network through the city centre by making a “second spine” of bus priority. It’s hugely cheaper: paint, signs, traffic lights and timetabling. It will take ~60% of the bus movements off the Golden Mile, meaning we can have more buses that serve us quicker, more reliably and freeing up the Golden Mile for a nicer experience walking, sitting out, meeting people, shopping…
Making it nicer and safer to walk around the centre, especially for more vulnerable Wellingtonians (disabled people, kids, older people): six much cheaper things than more highway space.
Tweak traffic lights to give people more time to cross roads.
Enforce genuine 30kph traffic speeds.
Widen footpaths and narrow crossing distances.
Prioritise more mobility carparking over general parking, and more parking enforcement.
Smooth the ramps between footpath and road.
Get scooters off footpaths into general lanes or cycle lanes
If you’re dead-set on stupidly expanding road space, do the best possible stupid-road-space-expansion project
Wellington should be negotiating hard for these three points
Make buses best through the Basin. Separated, fulltime bus priority through the Basin Reserve area both ways.
Free buses from mingling with general traffic because they carry way more people. Prioritise their crossing the highway travelling north-south - because remember they carry way more people - and separate them travelling east-west so they don’t get stuck in the general traffic.
Do not do this half-baked (part-time bus priority that confuses everyone, requires complex signage and loads of enforcement, and that’s vulnerable to short-term retraction while delivering only some of the goods).
For bonus points: fund the second spine - what was always going to actually unblock the central city, for everyone. Fulltime bus priority, that actually makes good on the “potential” for less traffic between our city and our harbour that NZTA dangle in their promotion.
The 2019 Bus Priority Action Plan is a brilliant document and (for once) with solid commitment from both councils. Execute it.
Make a way better Mt Vic tunnel experience for humans. Separated space for people walking, from people going fast on wheels, and both protected from cars.
They’re spending $2.9-$3.8 billion dollars of our money and the best NZTA’s own comms people can say for the design’s provision for people walking, scooting, wheeling and cycling is that it’s “better than status quo”. There’s still people going fast on wheels amongst people going slowly on feet and wheelchairs in a narrow confined space. Oh, with slightly fewer exhaust fumes and deafening traffic noise - lucky us. For $2.9-$3.8 billion dollars.
This is an embarrassment. Genuinely separated space is essential and given the people-carrying efficiency of rori iti and footpaths versus car lanes, absolutely worth more tunnel space.
Prevent the extra traffic of its induced demand from ruining big tracts of the city. Building more space for cars will, initially, make driving nicer. What does that mean?
More people drive, more - and not just through the centre non-stop. Including “popping down to Moore Wilsons” and “going to pick the kids up cos it’s raining” and and and and...
The extra traffic turning on and off the expanded highway at all the north-south junctions (Willis / Cuba / Victoria / Taranaki / Tory, and Wellington / Moxham / Walmer / Hamilton) will impose the “offramp effect” onto those neighbourhoods: more traffic, going faster because it’s about to get on / has just come off a zoomy big highway-feeling road. (See: Auckland neighbourhoods.)
Te Aro and Hataitai are car-dominated enough as it is, and they’re places where lots more people want to live and do stuff. Just as they’re starting to get going, extra traffic will blight them for decades to come. NZTA must prevent this - all this induced demand is entirely caused by making more driving space.
Negotiating points could be:
that they don’t let cars turn onto or off the big highway from some of these key streets (for Cuba, it would be a step towards pedestrianisation) - could use smart bollards that allow service vehicles and emergency vehicles only
That they expand footpath space at those intersections so people waiting (much longer) aren’t so cramped, and traffic turning on or off the highway must do so more carefully round a sharper corner.
Yes, these will slow traffic on the new highway. It’s a city. Fast traffic isn’t appropriate through a city centre.
Here’s how you can take action:
Do your thing by 11:59pm Sunday 14 December 2025.
Go to one of the NZTA open days / public meetings and say / ask about this stuff. There’s two left:
Wednesday, 3 December (3 pm – 7 pm) – All Saints Church Hall, Hataitai.
Saturday, 6 December (2 pm – 5 pm) – Mt Cook School Gym, Mt Cook.
Give “feedback” via their portal - this portal is pretty skewed to their beliefs about the project but do your best with the free text boxes. This engagement survey is open until 11:59pm Sunday 14 December 2025.
Email your messages in, to SH1Wgtnimprovements@nzta.govt.nz, with subject line “Feedback on Wellington RONS 1” or something similar. And make sure you include some of the demographic info at the beginning so they count it as a “real” piece of feedback.
Remember: we can still make this thing less bad for the city, and max up the side sweeteners. Make your voice heard!
Art by Erin Daily
Cover photo credit: Elliot Blyth