Contracts for the planning stages of major projects in Wellington's massive transport upgrade have been put out to tender.
Mt Victoria Tunnel Photo: CC BY 2.0
The $6.4 billion dollar Let's Get Wellington Moving plan (LGWM) aims to ease the Capital's congestion woes by building rapid transit from the city to airport, improving public transport and cycleways and easing traffic choke points on arterial routes.
The plan is a partnership between the Wellington city and regional councils and the Transport Agency, with funding to be split roughly 40-60 between the councils and central government.
Contracts put to tender include the engineering, design and planning work that will form part of the business case to determine the route and type of rapid transit system to be built from the railway station through the southern suburbs to the airport.
The tendered contracts will also help to determine the preferred options for State Highway improvements at the bottleneck at the Basin Reserve and for an extra Mount Victoria tunnel.
Construction on the extra tunnel was originally mooted to start about 2024, but in May the government pushed that out until the end of that decade.
LGWM programme director Andrew Body said work would be done to ensure the special character of the Basin Reserve was preserved.
"We need to determine the most appropriate route and type of mass rapid transit, and how it integrates with the wider transport system, particularly the bus network, and other projects in the programme including the state highways package.
"The state highways package will investigate which improvements at the Basin Reserve will provide the best outcomes for the transport network and the community.
"It will also investigate the extra Mt Victoria tunnel, and how the wider transport system will operate with these improvements."
He said at its heart, LGWM sought to move more people around the city with fewer vehicles.
It was a once in a generation investment in Wellington with mass rapid transit and state highway improvements parts of the plan to cost about $3bn, Mr Body said.
Tenders close 23 December and will be awarded in the New Year, with initial business case work to be completed early 2021.