Sobering Transmission Gully observations

LibertyScott has been following the Transmission Gully process for some time as part of his professional duties, and he's been blogging it regularly. He suggests this morning that those celebrating the decision by the Western corridors Hearing Committee need to "sober up" and consider:

1. This is not a final decision, simply a "recommendation" - not a 'go-ahead' for the project, just a go-ahead to go to the next committee.
   
2. At around $1 billion, "it still remains unaffordable" - "the money for it simply does not exist." As Kerry Prendergast points out, there is at least half-a-billion dollars missing to pay fo rit.
   
3. If it does go ahead, it will consume moneys needed for more beneficial projects.
4. Tolling the roadway would not even pay for the cost of tolling it.
5. Lots of other stuff.

Read his piece if Transmission Gully is gettgin you excited. (And reflect, perhaps, that for all those claims we've recently heard about how the census is needed for 'planning,' this is just another example of how long government projects take - by the time they're anywhere near completion, the world is half-a-century on.)

LINKS: Transmission Gully proposed by Hearings Committee - LibertyScott

TAGS: Wellington, Politics-NZ