While I certainly don't want to give up on fighting to stop the flyover being built at the Basin Reserve, a friend recently pointed out that there is another issue that I had not yet considered. And, it is one that could quite likely lead to construction of both the flyover and duplication of the Mt Victoria Tunnel.
The recently approved multi-court indoor community sports centre at Cobham Park in Kilbirnie (see map here) will reportedly have 317 car parks and is predicted to result in an "... amount of additional traffic using Mount Victoria Tunnel [that] equates to four years of traffic growth in ‘one big hit’." (see Captial Times article here)
It is likely that this projected increase in use of the Mt Victoria Tunnel will be used by the Wellington City Council as further proof of the need to construct the flyover at the Basin Reserve and duplicate the Mt Victoria Tunnel. The ridiculous point about this is that it is these very issues - transport and access - that Councillor Andy Foster was highlighting when he made his case at the Environment Court (he was calling for the siting of the indoor community sports centre to be in the CBD, near the public transport hub at the train station).
Unfortunately, lack of forethought and acceptance of the dual issues of climate change and peak oil by Wellington's governing bodies may well see yet more roads, more greenhouse gas emissions and more poor urban planning.
While it may take some time to come to fruition, sea level rise may have the last laugh as it returns the Miramar Peninsula to an island, and, in the process flooding the site of the proposed indoor community sports centre!
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