GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – Think!
There is a very good cautionary piece about The Fast-Track Bill by Lindsay Wood in The Newsroom this morning. It’s a long read about why big infrastructure projects run over budget and sometimes don’t achieve their desired outcome, with the main reason being that not enough planning thought went into them at the beginning.
The danger in The Fast-Track Bill ( I refuse to call it by its massaged name) is that it concentrates the decision-making powers with three ministers who may lack expertise in relevant fields and who are not required to consult with local people who may have environmentally friendly and cost effective solutions.
Wood gives the example of the Puhoi Tunnel at Johnstone’s Hill. Initially the motorway “was designed to run in a massive cutting, bisecting a ridgeline cloaked in native forest, wrecking a major wildlife corridor, and filling a good part of the Waiwera estuary with excavated material.”
Locals complained but Transit NZ refused to listen until, in 2016, “Noel Nancekivell, the engineering manager for the project, presented an insightful paper at the Safer Roads Conference, and reported a raft of technical and operational improvements to the motorway, including easier climbs and descents, gentler curves, and 15 percent faster travel.”
“The reduction in gradients,” Nancekivell wrote, “has the added safety benefit of reducing speed differential between fast and slower traffic, and allowing for less fuel emissions which has a significant long term benefit.”
So the tunnels solution was adopted.
The lesson? Don’t rush at the beginning of an infrastructure project, listen to the locals and don’t put politicians in charge of it.
PS. Mining of course is another matter – the financial returns to government are pathetic and the damage to our environment is huge. It’s stupid and we just don’t need it.
You can find Lindsay Wood’s excellent opinion piece here:
Bryan Bruce is one of New Zealand’s most important and respected documentary makers. His work is available on bryanbruce.substack.com
As carpenters say, measure twice and cut once.
Indeed.
Indeed to Chris Harris. Country Boy’s posts are too long and no one reads them. I assume CB is now KTC and my reply is to Chris Harris.
You are correct, we don’t want the fast track legislation. What we want is correct decisions made at a faster rate than in the past. What we had (and the cycle lane harbour bridge and the tramline in Auckland are perfect examples) is paralyses by analyses.
Major funding was under taken and studies made over a long period of time (yeah to be a contractor offering advice – money for nothing) that a correct decision on how and when to proceed was never taken.
Not only do we have a slow implementation of a design proposal to be signed off on, we have an even slower build speed. Nothing gets done at pace.
A simple motorway interchange takes 5 years to build (Takanini or Lincoln Road),a motorway widening four years and counting (Takanini to Drury).
The fast track legislation is the pendulum swing from snails pace to greyhound speed. What we need is somewhere in the middle where planning and build are done in a reasonable time frame. How much longer will Auckland inner city be dug up for (Wellesley Street now being dug up)?
Speaking of NZTA, have a look at this carry on re the Mount Messenger Bypass Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U60vCoepOYw
Thank you for the youtube reference.
I watched it and am completely gobsmacked that this carry on, this disgraceful, dishonest behaviour by NZTA and their cohorts is happening in our country.
Is this a forerunner of the sort of trample-over-everything-and-everybody behaviour that we can expect from the three ministers who have ultimate authority in the imminent fast-track legislation?
This short documentary is a must-see for anyone who cares for decency, transparency and respectfulness -three qualities that are definitely not evident by the protagonists in this portrayal. Shame on NZTA!
I think the Ministers have little to do with it. The gummints whoever, have contracted out their work to private business usually passing through agencies that are supposed to be top in
effectiveness in their discipline.
But it doesn’t work as well as even those pantographs in 1802 about. That’s all a system of levers and multiples but our gummints trying similar, mistake the lever side and concentrate wrongly on leverage. How things get altered and the idea deteriorates over time eh! The leverage adds complexity; now a newby goes overseas and does internship to see how to work it to the best advantage, of themselves and their party, whoopee.
Polygraph – original: https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/polygraph/
Thanks for your interest and feedback, Verity. Yes, despicable behaviour indeed.
What a waste of such a pristine parcel of land. With its fresh, clear waterways. Unique and precious wildlife. And its old, beautiful, untouched native flora.
All for what seems like a poorly thought-out and dangerous bypass. Comprising of a narrow, winding, two lane highway (one each way). With no medium barrier or lighting. In an area known for fog and frosty icy conditions in winter. Along with the seemingly dodgy (earthquake/landslide risk?) looking steep cliff faces the bypass cutting travels through.
Here is a link to the virtual drive over of the bypass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twMruKQxjDE
And here is a link to a little more info behind the court case which will make you go wow
https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/300990619/legal-manoeuvre-to-stop-land-acquisition-for-mt-messenger-bypass-dismissed
Rushing infrastructure projects is inherently bad. The effects are almost eternal including cost. We cannot have politicians (who often have far more regard for the sound of their arguments than skill) making that should be reserved for Judges.
Bob the Fart measured twice and still couldn’t get over 5mil