In Transit - February 1996 - Set up of Transfund

The February 1996 issue of In Transit newsletter led with announcement of the Transfund New Zealand Establishment Board to set up Transfund New Zealand later in that year. Transfund would take over the land transport funding function from Transit New Zealand (leaving Transit New Zealand's sole function as the state highway manager).  This functional separation was undertaken in the second term of the Bolger Government, but would be reversed in the third term of the Clark Government in 2008.

Other stories in this newsletter include:

• Realignment of a flood prone section of SH7 west of Hammer
• Start of a project to seal 23km of Far North District roads north of the Hokianga, funded 62% by Transit New Zealand. This reflected a revision to project evaluation procedures that increased the value of sealing roads. It was noted that at the time 77% of roads (by distance) in the Far North District were unsealed.
• A five-fold increase in logging expected in Northland by 2005 following a survey of local timber companies.
• A survey of Transit's performance sent to local authorities and consultants.
• Near completion of the Pott's Hill realignment on SH57 north of Levin, at a cost of $2.1m.  This realigned a previously dangerous and winding section of highway.
• Project audits of 15 projects indicated 13 out of the 15 met or exceeded the funding cutoff of a BCR off 5. 
• Sponsored roadside toilets.
• Moves to ensure speed advisory signs (applied to approaching corners) are applied more consistently, so drivers can respond to them more appropriately.

Karori bus lane and Karori Tunnel centenary and possible duplication

Wellington's suburb of Karori has two routes out towards the city, one via Kelburn and down Aro Valley, and another through the Karori Tunnel opened in 1900. The population of Karori at the time was 1,100, today it is around 17,000 people.  A tram line was extended through the tunnel in 1907, but replaced with trolley buses in 1954. There have been various proposals to build a second Karori Tunnel to the south or north of the current tunnel, removing the Glenmore Street hairpin curve, or to connect to Aro Street, but none proceeded far.

The first article is from 1996 when the idea of a bus lane approaching the Karori Tunnel was first floated, and in 1997 Wellington City Council formally proposes the Chaytor Street bus lane approaching from the west.  The feasibility study indicated congestion added 20 minutes to the bus trip from Karori Park to Karori Tunnel in the AM peak.  The cost of the project was estimated at $450,000 with a BCR of 22:1.  The lane proposed was along parts of Karori Road (those sections would not proceed).  The lane was subsequently built, but is now proposed to be removed to make way for an uphill cycling lane.

The last article commemorates the centenary of the Karori Tunnel. Notably it indicates that a second Karori Tunnel is "scheduled" to be built within the next decade (i.e. by 2010) to run parallel to the existing tunnel, and could probably be funded by tolls. It was then estimated to cost $30-40m.  It was noted it was a major bottleneck but traffic lights would not be installed (traffic lights have subsequently been installed to manage bus traffic through the narrow tunnel).

In 2023 there is no second Karori Tunnel being pursued by Wellington City Council.

Wellington traffic congestion in 1988 and proposed funding reforms

In 1988 the Dominion ran a major story about traffic congestion in Wellington which reviewed what might be done about it.  It followed on from proposals from Minister Bill Jefferies to combine road and public transport funding and also reflected the view at the time that the future for Wellington transport was not to seek to respond entirely to the growth in car traffic. It noted at the time that 42% of commuters to central Wellington travelled by public transport.  At the time buses in Wellington were provided by Wellington City Transport, which was a WCC owned monopoly, and in the Hutt/Porirua and Kapiti most bus services were provided by Cityline (NZR Road Services), noting that the Ministry of Transport had proposed opening up bus services to competition. 

It was noted that public transport had to be made more attractive, but it was also claimed that within two years (1990) the motorway extension from the Terrace Tunnel to Mt Victoria Tunnel would be started as it was the "highest priority" road project in the Wellington region, following completion of the Mungavin Interchange on SH1 at Porirua.  Of course, the motorway extension did not proceed following the land transport funding and governance reforms of 1989, and the significant cut in funding provided in 1991 that saw the project fail to meet the funding threshold.  The WCC's analysis also suggested a second Terrace Tunnel had good economic benefits but this was seen as a "low priority" regionally (under a funding model that relied on local authorities in the region agreeing on priority projects. 

Ultimately this story was inconclusive, and there would be future articles highlighting the lack of progress in addressing congestion in Wellington.

The article notes the Greater Wellington Land use and Transportation Strategic Review that would also consider whether Transmission Gully would be worth pursuing, but at the time the Transmission Gully proposal was meant to end at Belmont in the Hutt on SH2, which was seen to be adding significantly to congestion on SH2 more generally.  Transmission Gully would be revised in the 1990s to connect to SH1 first at Takapu Road Tawa and later at its current location.  Congestion pricing (called road tolls) was not being considered seriously. 

The article below notes that afternoon accidents cause more congestion than morning ones, but that severe congestion results in few serious accidents because slow traffic causes only minor collisions. Another article confirms Minister Bill Jefferies wanting land transport funding to include public transport, and for motorists to also fund road safety education and enforcement.  MoT had also proposed opening up profitable public transport routes to competition and requiring competitive tendering for subsidised routes (which was ultimately implemented).  Noting that public transport recovers 50-55% of operating costs from fares, with the remainder split between central and local government.  A short article notes the Hutt City Mayor of the time wanting more Wellington offices to relocate to Lower Hutt.  

Overall the conclusions were very open ended. While the motorway extension was expected to make a difference, overall the focus was on changes to the funding system and considering how to make public transport more competitive with driving.

Courtenay Place upgrade 1996

Given the soon to begin "Golden Mile" works along the route from Courtenay Place along to Lambton Quay in Wellington, this article from 1996 for the last major upgrade of Courtenay Place may be timely.  The works consisted of:

• Simplification of the intersection between Courtenay Place, Kent/Cambridge Tce and Majoribanks St
• Removal of the two "island" bus stops, replaced with side located stops (associated also with the redesign of many Wellington bus routes to be through routes between suburbs, rather than services from Western and Northern suburbs terminating at Courtenay Place)
• New footpaths and a large pedestrian area on the south-eastern end of Courtenay Place, with significant narrowing of the loadspace to enable wider footpaths.

The old island bus stops while providing free flow conditions for buses moving east along Courtenay Place, were also considered a hazard to pedestrians, due to the tendency of some unsociable and intoxicated people to reside in the shelters, frightening some bus passengers. The new design opened up Courtenay Place more generally, although the angled parking at the south-eastern end was removed some years later.

The total project cost around $2m in 1996.

Land transport funding reform in the late 1980s

This post contains a series of newspaper articles from 1988/1989 about discussions on land transport funding reform.  I have a large number of articles from the 1980s and 1990s on these issues which I will include as posts collectively on similar topics from time to time.

2 June 1988 the Evening Post reported on what then Labour Transport Minister Bill Jefferies was considering, which would subsequently result in the merger of the National Roads Board (which by this time was a branch of the Ministry of Transport, following the wind up of the Ministry of Works) with the Urban Transport Council.  The National Roads Board was the decision-making body for central government funding of roads, with extensive local government representation by region. The Urban Transport Council determined central government funding of public transport, which at the time primarily consisted of grants for capital spending to local bus enterprises.  The merger was intended to enable tradeoffs in spending of roads and public transport.  This would ultimately result in creation of Transit New Zealand as a single land transport funding and state highway management agency(hence the name). 

This undated article from around the same time also reports on the intention to deregulate the taxi industry.  It reports in more detail on the restructuring of road functions, with the Ministry of Transport holding the road design and contracting functions, and the road safety education and enforcement roles.  It as noted that while road building and maintenance received funding from RUC and fuel tax, public transport subsidies, safety education and road safety enforcement came from general taxation.  Ultimately all of this would get funded from the National Land Transport Fund.  

The article also notes interest in reviewing public transport monopolies, and using taxis to provide evening services in some communities in place of scheduled public transport services.  

15 August 1988 Evening Post report is a criticism from the AA that road user taxes had been diverted to the Urban Transport Council and the Ministry of Transport, and that this had compromised funding for road safety infrastructure improvements.  The report noted funding had been approved for a median barrier between Johnsonville and Tawa on SH1 north of Wellington (Johnsonville-Porirua motorway) and widening Upper Hutt's River Road which had been the site of multiple fatalities.  It notes failures to fund some additional median barriers.

This undated report from 1988/1989 is one of the earliest reports into New Zealand considering whether technology would enable free-flow road pricing, following a trial in the Netherlands.  The technology is described as using roadside monitors with pre-purchased stored value cards, with number plate recognition cameras.  The Minister at the time, Bill Jefferies describes it as being at the investigation stage, where's Opposition spokesman Maurice McTigue said fuel tax worked well and was fair, and tolling could only be justified for a specific project where alternative funding was needed.

Following that earlier article, road pricing was ruled out by both the Labour Government of the day and the National Opposition.  Minister Jefferies instructed that "no work" was to be done on road pricing.  The AA was opposed because it said $600m of fuel tax was diverted to the Consolidated Fund, at the rate of 21.4c/l.  The MoT's land transport division general manager Allan Kennaird said it was not considered for funding roads, but to manage congestion.  He described the work as being to "keep our ear to the ground",. as it appears the idea was thought as having more support politically than it has.  

In Transit - June 1996 No. 74 - Quality Management

This edition of the InTransit newsletter focused on Transit New Zealand adopting the 1980s/1990s management trend of Total Quality Management (TQM). This was starting to go out of fashion in the United States at the time of this newsletter, as it was replaced with ISO9000 standards (mentioned in the primary article) and the Six Sigma approaches to management. 

Besides a description of how the agency adopted quality assurance, was an article celebrating the increase in the budget approved for Transit New Zealand enabling the BCR funding threshold to be lowered to 4.5 in 1996/1997 and 4 in 1997/1998, which reflected the Government's confidence in the standards of capital projects to be approved for funding by the new funding agency, Transfund New Zealand. 

Other elements of this newsletter are:

• Description of the forthcoming Roads 96 conference including mention of the Land Transport Pricing Study, an epic piece of pioneering work to establish the costs including externalities, of land transport and the how these costs were paid or attributed;
• Transit's interest in trialling an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) for Auckland, which would subsequently be implemented.
• Local authority survey of safety; and
• An image of an on-street party celebrating the relocation of SH1 in Timaru from the CBD to the bypass route recently opened (which despite the caption is not a motorway). 

In Transit June 1996

In Transit June 1996

In Transit June 1996

In Transit June 1996

Newlands Interchange, Wellington

Newlands Interchange - Project Newsletter 1996

It is taken for granted now by drivers and passengers using SH1 Ngauranga Gorge today, but it is notable that the last traffic light controlled intersection on SH1 north of Wellington until Papakowhai (and today until Levin) was not removed until 1998.

At the top of the Ngauranga Gorge on SH1 in Wellington, the Newlands intersection was a legacy of when the Gorge road was upgraded, sealed and widened in the 1930s as part of the Centennial Highway project (which ended in suburban Johnsonville and did not recommence until beyond Plimmerton to Pukerua Bay and along the coast to Paekakariki).  Having a traffic light controlled intersection on a six-lane highway that, at the time, operated at a 100 km/h speed limit, created a considerable bottleneck, primarily for the state highway traffic, but also long queues for traffic turning off to Newlands (which would back-up into the fast lane). Queues southbound would extend past the Johnsonville southbound offramp and northbound down to the Ngauranga intersection. Some of this is illustrated in the project newsletter. Contributing to congestion is that trucks from the quarry and industrial sites on the southern side of SH1 Ngauranga Gorge have to go uphill and enter Newlands, by crossing into the fast lane and queuing to turn.  This would be eliminated by the project having a slip lane to enter the interchange for an easier turn.

The intersection would also be the site for accidents ranging from multiple nose-to-tails to occasional red-light collisions.  One report indicated that the intersection had had 28 injury accidents in the five years from 1991-1996.

In essence, the efficiency and useful capacity of this section of highway was compromised by the intersection. Noting that by the time this project was built, two traffic light controlled intersections on SH1 in Porirua just north of the Johnsonville-Porirua Motorway (at Mungavin Avenue and The Ramp) had already been replaced by grade-separated interchanges, permanently relieving congestion on SH1 through Porirua. 

The Newlands Interchange project plans were released in 1993, but construction did not start until December 1996 and it was opened in March 1998. The problem was not funding, as it had a Benefit/Cost Ratio above 6. This consisted of $70m in travel time and vehicle operating cost savings over 25 years and $12m in accident savings over that time. At the time SH1 Ngauranga Gorge had around 60,000 vehicles per day with Newlands Roads at 13,000.  Today Ngauranga Gorge still averages around 59,000 vehicles per day.

Delays were due to planning appeals, specifically local concerns about construction disruption from the adjacent motel and opposition from the Rainforest Action Group. This post includes multiple newspaper articles about the project, but also the official information leaflet upfront. 

The project was originally costed at $9m but ended up costing $16.3m (the BCR of over 6 reflect the latter cost, the previous cost had a BCR over 11)

Newlands Interchange - Project Newsletter Page 2

Newlands Interchange - Project Newsletter Page 3

Newlands Interchange - Project Newsletter Page 4

The following articles are :

• dated 13 July 1996 from the Evening Post, about appeals for planning approval from the Manor Inn Group (largely due to concerns over disruption during construction) and the Rainforest Action Group (which withdrew its appeal). 
• Dated 8 August 1997 depicting the construction of the project, including an image of how erosion and debris would be addressed.
• Undated in 1997 also depicting construction of the project

1996 and 1997 articles

The following article reports on the final appeals against the project being addressed and intention to go to tender for its construction. 

Newlands interchange 04 October 1996 Evening Post

The following article is a schematic diagram of the project and describes further the problems with the former intersection.

Newlands Interchange 7 November 1996, Dominion

This final article reports on the interchange being due to open at the end of March 1998.

Newlands Interchange 19 March 1998 Evening Post