Concerns raised over building of five crossings on Wellington road

The Wellington mayor wants a change of plans amid widespread works on one of the city's busiest roading corridors.

The redesign of Thorndon Quay has been called "crazy" and "terrible" by one city councillor, but the project is well underway – construction started last year.

Among the changes are upgrades adding five new raised pedestrian crossings to the 1.7-kilometre stretch from the Wellington Train Station to Hutt Rd.

The addition of the crossings is costing $1.4 million, and businesses, truck drivers, and even emergency services have raised concerns about practicality.

The crossings come in addition to two safe passages for pedestrians at traffic lights.

The council says the new crossings improve visibility and are safer – especially for children, the elderly, and wheelchair users. They are also controlled by signals to ensure drivers do not need to stop unless someone is crossing.

The council estimates 2000 to 3000 people walk along Thorndon Quay each day. When it carried out consultation in 2022, 64% of 577 respondents supported the redesign, which also included new bus lanes and cycle paths, and reduced speed limits.

But one of the councillors representing the CBD, Nicola Young, said the works are unnecessary. She also expressed concern around the impact of the works on neighbouring businesses, which have publicly said they're losing customers amid the works and fewer places to park.

Young told 1News: "The number of cones is eye-watering. It looks like they've got a disease and they're breeding. I mean, it's terrible. We've got to stop this. It's crazy."

She said while she supports pedestrianisation of the CBD, Thorndon Quay is not the right place for it.

"This is not a pedestrian area – it's a light industrial area which is where I'd go to buy a bed... I'm not going to carry it. You can't have it on a bus."

The crossing designs comply with firefighting access guides, but Fire and Emergency New Zealand expressed concern that overall, the project has "design features that make it difficult to pull over, allowing trucks to safely pass".

Transporting New Zealand Ia Ara Aotearoa's interim chief executive Dom Kalasih told 1News his members thought the project was "overkill" in an essential freight route that heavy trucks use every day.

"Our estimations are it'll take an extra minute, because of the slowing up, down, and then accelerating up."

Thorndon Quay is also a transit area for many childcare centres and schools.

Mayor Tory Whanau said officers "will bring back some more options for progressing along that stretch".

"My preference is that we find changes to hear concerns from transport stakeholders, but without any additional cost or delay to the overall project, which is now in the construction phase."

She said she wanted to focus in particular on ensuring the council is "doing as much as possible to improve the comfort, reliability and speed of buses on this important route, whilst also driving the increased pedestrianisation of our city".

"That’s what we’ll be looking at and I expect we’ll make some changes."

The crossings will be discussed at a council committee meeting next week.

Massey University human geographer Simon Opit said while the area may not currently be considered a pedestrian hotspot, the redesign would allow for more foot traffic.

"You have to put the infrastructure in first to enable these places to be nice, to attract the foot traffic."

He gave examples of pedestrianisation of Auckland's lower Queen St, Commercial Bay, and the waterfront.

"The impact of vehicles, general traffic has been reduced and spaces for people have been increased and what we're seeing is busy, bustling places."

Opit added that during council consultation and redesigns, "what we tend to find is those who are against these sorts of proposals do tend to have the loudest voices".

"There's a lot of people who are mostly in support, and would probably appreciate having an environment like that [for pedestrians] but they're not sparked to speak up and make a lot of song and dance about it."

In a statement, the Wellington City Council said the design had been approved by the Regulatory Processes Committee in August 2023.

"The installation of the raised pedestrian crossings was clearly articulated and consulted on as part of the traffic resolution process. This provided the opportunity for anyone with an interest to submit on the proposed design. The traffic resolution was supported 6:1 at the meeting."

The project is expected to be completed next June.

The council was dealt a blow last month after the Thorndon Quay Collective – a collective of businesses operating on or near Thorndon Quay – took legal action over the loss of car parks in the redesign.

The Court of Appeal ruled that the council's 2021 consultation on parking changes "did not comply with the Council’s obligations under s 77(1) of the Local Government Act 2002 (the LGA)".