As a slight aside from the investigation into Transmission Gully and it’s dubiously planned Link roads, I thought I would go back in time. Back, indeed, to the time of Bill Sutch, back in time to even before the current Wellington Foothills motorway was built. Long time ago, I know. Sutch, a clever man, an economist, was once labelled as a communist by the powers-that-be, and…
basin-reserve
28 Articles
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Maximus
3 Min Read
One of the curious things about the modern architectural world is the art of the computer renderer. A friend of mine once worked on a project where the computer renders of the building were surrounded by a carpark which contained only Lamborginis. This, despite the building being designed for lowly polytechnic students in a poor part of town, and highly unlikely to ever sight a single…
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Maximus
8 Min Read
The whole Basin Reserve saga has, so far, been more of a tragic farce rather than a comedy, in terms of its public participation, and that doesn’t look like changing yet. The public have not felt inclined to really get involved, except for those who live on Mt Victoria and those who have a revulsion to concrete flyovers. The rest of the population seems to be…
Maximus
1 Min Read
I did have a small post scheduled for tomorrow morning, but the release of both of these today sort of takes precedence! It never rains, but it pours! Seems kind of appropriate, considering the weather we have been having lately. So: seeing as the Basin Reserve “mitigation” study / blatant bribe to the Reserve Trust has been released, and the Passenger Transport Spine study, and the…
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Maximus
4 Min Read
In a surprising piece of breaking news today, we have just heard that the results of the Wellington Public Transport Spine study have been announced, and the end result will no doubt surprise some people. In line with Wellington City Council’s new found love for Flyovers, as approved by Councilor Andy Foster at a recent Council meeting of the Strategy and Policy sub-committee, a flyover is…
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Maximus
1 Min Read
Well, not much of a surprise at all. We could see that one coming like a freight train across the Nullarbor. Option A, aka a flyover motorway bridge closest to the Basin Reserve, has been chosen as the preferred option by the NZTA, ignoring the daring alternatives of Option B (similar to A, but in an alternative “silly” position), and the myriad of other options considered,…
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Maximus
2 Min Read
On the one hand Brownlee giveth: on the other hand he taketh away. Last week Wellington had the unexpected pleasure of finding that Memorial Park was to be saved from the knackers yard and the motorway was put underground (in a trench). This week we are about to wake up and find out that the other half of the bargain is that Basin Reserve continues to…
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Maximus
2 Min Read
Consultation on the NZTA’s solutions for “roading improvements” around the Basin and through to the Airport (the tail end of State Highway 1, if you will), closes today. I’ve been taking a bit of a back seat on this, watching from the sidelines as the alternative proposal put forward by the Architectural Centre “Option X” gets some decent airtime. From what I can gather, it is…
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Maximus
1 Min Read
We’d heard rumours at the Fish HQ of a proposed sweetener deal of a Grandstand, but have been caught off the hop by this – I didn’t think it was going to surface just yet. It is a curious proposal – and all seems rather Fishy to me. In a country notorious for its distain for, and freedom from corruption, is this the first openly blatant…
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Maximus
3 Min Read
We’re part of the way through the public “consultation” phase of the NZTA schemes for “improvements” around the Basin Reserve, and so far we’ve only heard one side of the story. For whatever reasons, political, Machiavellian, or incompetence, only the “two options” have been proffered to the public by the roading lobby. That’s a real pity – as I’ve noted already, and which Scoop picked up…