By Charlotte Shipman
The decades-old debate over whether or not the Transmission Gully motorway north of Wellington should be built will be resolved in just four months.
The final decision will be up to a Board of Inquiry which has just started hearing submissions.
Ashleigh Vivier and Nicole Duke spent two years commuting from Paekakariki to Wellington – a 40 kilometre trip which could take up to an hour and a half.
“We'd leave at 6am; if you left at 6.15am then you're starting to get backed up and if anything goes wrong you're late for work.”
Transmission Gully would provide an alternative inland corridor between the Kapiti Coast and just north of Wellington. Ms Duke says it is long overdue.
“This highway is not big enough,” she says of the current situation. “It was never built for this many people and it's just going to keep growing and growing, so it has to be done.”
A Board of Inquiry has been tasked with deciding if the 27 kilometre, four-lane highway will go ahead. It must give its decision, which will be binding, in June.
Commuter Darcy Jarvis hopes the project gets the green light.
“At the moment if anyone has an accident it just bottlenecks. There's no way around it so you really need that alternative route.”
Opposition to the billion dollar development will also be heard during the four-week hearing.
If the board approves the project, the New Zealand Transport Agency wants to start construction on Transmission Gully in 2015 and estimates it will take six years.
3 News