Bypassing Central Wellington
In 1963 international engineering consultants De Leuw Cather and local firm Rankin Hill completed a report on inner city extensions to Wellington's planned motorway, defining a £20m "Foothills Motorway" through the city. It was a plan for its time, involving big, bold engineering works, a six-lane motorway curving through Te Aro, a massive interchange at the foot of the Dominion Museum's hill, and flyovers to a second Mt Victoria tunnel. Forty- two years later the inner city bypass is at last being constructed – e.nz magazine takes a closer look.
Construction Site
New Zealand's economy was one of the strongest in the western world when the original report was written. But by 1978, when the motorway had been completed as far as The Terrace tunnel, it was a different story. The demand for our wool had waned, and the 1973 oil shock had turned the world's attention to energy. The government planned new energy industries, and expected subsidised farmers to breed record numbers of sheep, but neither produced good returns, and the funding for major roading projects evaporated. The Wellington motorway extension stalled, half-built.
Then in 1989 Works Consultancy Services dusted off the original De Leuw Cather plans with a view to reinterpreting them. Its $110m tunnel-link plan was modelled on the De Leuw Cather vision but the days of "progress" were over; and in 1991 the Resource Management Act replaced the Town and Country Planning Act, heralding the age of "sustainability".
This case study is reproduced with permission from e.nz magazine. Subscriptions to e.nz are discounted for schools and TENZ members.
