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Thousands will be affected by new Kapiti expressway, says local group
Press Release – Alliance for Sustainable Kapiti (ASK)
The new Kapiti expressway plan released by the New Zealand Transport Authority is every bit as bad as we feared. Far from being the ‘cheapest route’ and the one which ‘doesn’t affect properties’, this new route is fast becoming the most expensive, and with upwards of 86 properties directly needed, has a far more severe impact than many people realised.
In all the literature that NZTA has produced, there is still no mention of the thousands of people adversely affected by having a motorway over the fence. The fact that NZTA has no plans to compensate these people must be of concern to our Council, and ASK calls on Mayor Rowan to stand up for our community and demand compensation for the loss of property values.
Many people will need to move to escape the noise, vibration and pollution, and it is shameful that they will be required to bear the costs and effectively subsidise this route for the Government.
ASK is horrified that people will lose their homes and lifestyle merely to accommodate a new strip of tarseal, which according to the economic analysis will mainly benefit the logging industry.
The new proposal for a southern entrance to the route, while saving one section of Raumati South, annihilates another. NZTA is very good at setting one section of the community against another, with the objective to ‘divide and rule’.
Our Community must stand together to fight this, and we can and will win. There is a logical, cheap, effective and popular alternative; upgrade SH1, replace the lights with interchanges at either Ihakara St or Kapiti Road and Te Moana Road, build a short section of the WLR between Ihakara and Te Moana, encourage commuters to travel by rail by massively improving the service here and in Wellington, and instigate the whole range of traffic demand management measures available.
Now that NZTA will allow local traffic onto the road, it is time to review the SH1 option, which was discounted because of the cost of keeping local traffic off.
ASK encourages the community to respond to these latest plans by rejecting them in favour of a sustainable option.
Unpopular and costly, say Greens
Kapiti Council welcomes announcement
Read also: two articles and many comments
New roads … new anxieties
Dividing Kapiti in two – madness
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
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Anyone would think from his comments in the Star Times (28/11/10) that the Minister of Transport, Steven Joyce has never ventured beyond New Zealand’s shores to see how other, more populated, more prosperous countries work. It seems he thinks everyone should be able to do their own thing regardless of the costs they impose on others. He seems to think that planning is bad, especially urban planning. He would have had a field day in industrial England!
Not only does he think tax payers should cough up billions to maintain roads for commuters who choose to live by the sea or in the country and work in the city, but that we should also pay for producers who prefer trucks to trains to transport their goods – even if they operate close to a railway line. And pay we do – not just in cash but through the destruction of our communities and the degradation of our environment.
Of course the rail system is costing heaps at the moment (not, mind you, as much as roads) – that is because while billions have been poured into our roading system year after year after year, our railway system was left to rot and its infrastructure stripped by private businessmen seeking to maximise their profits (one was subsequently knighted for his “contribution” to the country!) Now, the current rate of restoration cannot keep up with the growing demand from commuters and producers for an efficient rail system. So that is why we need more investment in rail rather than roads and why it is important that we use planning tools to maximise the value of that investment – just like they do all over Europe Mr Joyce. Check it out.
Incidentally, Mr Joyce seems not to have heard of Travel Demand Management, especially telecommuting to reduce traffic flows. The world is moving on Mr Joyce, time you joined in. We need some modern, creative thinking. Big roads went out with big hair.
Mr Joyce vigorously argues against any public transport or rail proposal on the grounds that those projects should only proceed if they can be paid for by local communities (not central government) or from revenue, or on the grounds that “further studies are needed”. Yet motorways are pushed ahead even when the studies show that they will not provide a long term reduction in traffic problems (and in fact will worsen them), that they have low or negative net benefits, and that there are better alternatives available.
One of the top regional transport priorities for many years was the Western Link Stage 1 – a modest and affordable road that would divert local Kapiti traffic off SH1. But the government wasn’t prepared to fund it. Yet suddenly they can afford to 100% fund a major new motorway that will deliver no additional benefits.
And in the meantime, the most urgent rail project on the Kapiti line – replacing the single track section from Paekakariki to Muri with a double tunnel – isn’t even on the list of things to be done if there is money. KiwiRail has managed to money to do some minor tweaks to allow freight trains to fit through the tunnels more readily, but that isn’t going to remove the constraint on commuter timetables.