So many questions after this week’s announcements about new tunnels and SH1 ‘improvements’ in Wellington. One thing is certain: there’s no commitment to build anything yet, though the wording of the announcements may have misled many people.

Here’s the only spending that has been approved:

SH1 Wellington Improvements: $185m to progress design, consenting, and early works development.

Petone to Grenada and Cross Valley Link: $32m to progress design, consenting and procurement activities.

The announcement from Chris Bishop said that the NZ Transport Agency Board has now ‘endorsed investment cases’ for six more of the government’s roads of national significance – there’s now a total of 16 of them. Two of the six are the Wellington improvements and the new Petone to Grenada road.

He said the board approved more than $675m in funding “to progress consenting, design, route protection, site investigations, and some early works.” Wellington and Petone to Grenada funding represents less than a third of this national total.

Which of the 16 RoNS projects will be given priority? Where does Wellington fit in the priority list? Chris Bishop hasn’t decided:

“It’s important that we also have a clear plan for delivery, including well-reasoned prioritisation to inform the order in which these RoNS are funded and delivered. The Government will have more to say about that in the coming months.”

So we must wait and see.

And how will our region’s $217m be spent? Chris Bishop mentions fast tracking for documentation:

“NZTA has confirmed it will seek statutory approvals for the full project via the FTAA as a listed project. All necessary documentation for the tunnels and wider roading improvements will be submitted by July 2026.”

Any actual work in Wellington? He’s hoping that investigations and planning can be fast tracked as well.

“Geotechnical investigations will begin shortly along the second Mt Victoria Tunnel alignment. Work will begin in 2026, and the first packages may include the delivery of supporting road improvements, housing removal/demolition and site clearance.”

Will he be able to count this as “spades in the ground,” in terms of his election promise?

And what exactly has been endorsed for Wellington?

His announcement mentions only a second Mt Victoria Tunnel.

But in a simultaneous release, the NZTA said that two tunnels are included in the Wellington project – a second Terrace Tunnel as well. Why did the Government not mention this in its announcement?

(The NZTA board first approved a second Terrace Tunnel last November, when Simeon Brown was Transport Minister.)

Then there’s the cost – $2.9 to $3.8 billion – for two tunnels, improvements at the Basin, and removing parking from Vivian Street. It’s only a guess, however – as no design work has yet been done. An NZTA timeline shows design work continuing till 2028.

So there’s no commitment to pay for the tunnels or the other improvements. As NZTA stated this week: “Future phases of the project are subject to further funding decisions.”

The Greater Auckland transport blog points out that the Wellington improvements have the lowest Benefit Cost ratio of the six projects – 1.0 if tolled, and 1.2 untolled. It says there was a time when a BCR of 3.0 was the minimum for spending public funds on this scale. And it says:

“All the RoNs projects are now looking to cost an astonishing $40-50 billion, based on the new documents released by the NZTA… the six RoNs cases approved this week help to illustrate the scale of the unaffordability crisis racing towards us. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Government is not just kidding themselves, they’re trying to fool the public as well.”

After reading this week’s two announcements, Wellington’s Nemo observed on eyeofthefish that most of the money goes to Auckland, “where roads reign supreme, and logic fails to register.”

He then asks: will the two Wellington projects ever happen?

“National and the Trucking Lobby say Yes. The Eye of the Fish says No, probably never. Two projects, each more stupid than the other.”

He agrees that a second Mt Victoria Tunnel is needed, but asks if this is the right route. He says grade separation at the Basin should be done first, by extending the Arras Tunnel.

His other comments include regrets – shared by all of us – that SH1 traffic will continue to be routed through Vivian Street:

“Three-laning of Vivian Street is my real hatred – the traffic already hoons through there at an almost motorway speed at times. On my infrequent trips up that end of town I despair over how badly the Cuba Street area is chopped in half by this hideous SH1 route. Can’t we underground it? Please?

“And can we not have a really good think about how to make Karo Drive two way? And free Vivian for ever?”

As for Petone to Grenada, Nemo writes:

Utterly pointless waste of $2.1 to $2.6 BILLION. But they now have a route which uses 70% less digging than before. Before it was one of the most expensive and useless roads in the world. Now, it costs even more, but inflation means that it looks like it is more affordable. No, it isn’t.

… the cost has gone up, and the road has gone down into the gullies, because after Transmission Gully, they now know how cheap and simple it is to build a road through a scenic gully full of trees and ferns and streams and shifting shingles on gully floors. Two tunnels, one 410m long, the other 230m long, and several bridges. As a comparison, the existing Mt Vic tunnel is 623m long.

Each to their own, I guess, but it makes no sense to me – just continue down a few more kilometres to the Ngauranga Gorge and then turn left, and back up SH2 to Petone. But yes, that takes time. And to Bishop, time is money. But to me, I’m very happy to save a couple of billion dollars. I’d rather have a train tunnel from Petone to link to the Kapiti Line. And of course, I’d really rather have Light Rail in Central Wellington.