Funding Constraints Delay Needed Interchanges Yesterday I was alerted through Facebook by Councillor George Wood that the Manukau and Otahuhu Bus Interchanges that were due to be built next … Continue reading Manukau and Otahuhu Bus Interchanges Delayed
NZTA (New Zealand Transport Agency) has recently briefed new Transport Minister Simon Bridges of activities the organisation is up to and keeping an eye on presently and for the future. This Briefing Incoming Ministers (or BiM) is routine and occurs after an election or when a Minister changes over for that respective Ministry.
Of note I did pick the up the following in regards to the City Rail Link from NZTA:
5.8 CITY RAIL LINK – AUCKLAND
Auckland Council and Auckland Transport are continuing to plan, design and acquire property for the City Rail Link. The City Rail Link is now being delivered in two distinct parts.
Phase One is the enabling works to build two rail tunnels between Britomart under Queen Street and the Downtown Shopping Centre, and a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel under Albert Street as far as Wyndham Street. The enabling works are planned for 2016 to 2017 to coincide with the planned
redevelopment of the Downtown Shopping Centre by Precinct Properties Ltd. Auckland Council is budgeting between $240 million and $250 million for these works. The aim is to complete the enabling works before the World Masters Games in April 2017. We think this is a sensible sequencing of enabling works which will minimise disruption of critical intersections in the CBD, and enable compliance with the planning conditions that only one intersection can be out of action at any one time. A more compact construction schedule at a later time would prove too disruptive.
Phase Two is the tunnel boring machine and station building stages of the project. This phase could start as early as 2018 and be completed by 2022 at a cost of around $2 billion. Design and procurement decisions for this phase could be taken progressively from 2015/16 onwards, but are dependent on future funding decisions and commitments. The Crown is not currently an active partner in the City Rail Link project implementation. The government has signalled it will only consider being a funding partner to enable a construction start in 2020, or possibly earlier if certain patronage or other targets are achieved. The risk of not being involved in these early stages is that the key elements of the project get determined in the meantime. If the Crown is to be a future funding partner it needs a mechanism to identify options and risks around planning, design, procurement and financing. We have experience in complex infrastructure projects of the scale of the City Rail Link. One mechanism to help manage Crown risk could be for the Transport Agency to become a technical partner with Auckland Transport in developing the City Rail Link. This would be consistent with the one transport system arrangements that have been forged with Auckland Transport and Auckland Council over the last 3-4 years.
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Source: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/briefing-for-incoming-minister/docs/briefing-to-incoming-minister-2014.pdf (page 25)
Minister Simon Bridges talks about the two phases to NewsTalk ZB earlier today: Simon Bridges: Auckland’s City Rail Link.
So it seems the Minister is quite warm to the City Rail Link being split into two phases as NZTA has recommended insofar as the Minister has given his blessing for phase one to begin (that is the enabling works) as soon as Council has its own finances sorted.
As for Phase Two the Minister right at the end of the interview gave a one word answer that all things lined up and considered, would allow this phase of the CRL to begin in 2018.
All this would bring the City Rail Link two-phase operation in line with what Councillor Linda Cooper tried to get through in the Budget Committee last week (Analysis on The Budget Committee Day One) which to me would have been a good “fail safe” device knowing the Government is holding firm to 2020. However, and rather stupidly the majority of the Budget Committee led by the Mayor are holding fast to whole hogging the CRL from 2016 no matter what.
For me and as noted in three City Rail Link podcasts what NZTA has proposed is a good Best of Both Worlds solution and would be entirely consistent with my calling to start the CRL around the 2017/2018 start date. That said it would be my stance over the last three years (when I last updated it from my original Auckland Plan submission) slightly updated to allow the enabling works so that we are in sync with the Precinct Property development in Downtown Auckland.
So NZTA has moved first and we have a Minister giving his blessing to the enabling works at the minimum while warm to Phase Two starting 2018 all things considered. Now would be a very good idea for Council to agree to the NZTA two-phase operation for the sanctity of the City Rail Link. In other words for an inflexible Mayor to be come a tad more flexible.
The Weekend Analysis – Capacity and Frequencies open with The City Rail Link
From Auckland Council
Auckland Council has successfully prosecuted five companies under the Building Act for starting building works without building consent, including one which was fined $9,000.
In the Manukau District Court last week, Judge Sharon McAuslan fined Waikato Crane Services Ltd $9,000 for starting building works without building consent on a commercial building site for an office and workshop for cranes.
The building, at Langley Rd, Wiri, was about 75 per cent complete when council officers visited the site in late August.
Judge McAuslan determined the starting point for the offending as $14,000. After allowing a discount for various mitigating features, she fined the company $9,000 and court costs of $130. Auckland Council receives 90 per cent of the fine; the balance going to the courts.
The company said it relied on assurances given by an in-house project manager that proved to be incorrect and unreliable.
Four other companies – including a construction company, a plumber and drainlayer – were also fined between $4,550 and $3,250 – for breaches of the Act.
Auckland Council’s Manager Litigation & Regulatory, Legal Services, James Hassall said the fines imposed send a clear warning to companies and experts that they must ensure that all building work is carried out in accordance the legal obligations and requirements of the Building Act.
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Pays to comply folks
Unitary Plan could be dangerous to our industrial capacity now and into the future I alluded to in my previous podcast that the compact city model could be poisonous … Continue reading The Unitary Plan and our Industrial Complexes
Looking at Land Allocation, Transport, Jobs, Energy Efficiency, and Greenhouse Gas Waste In this podcast I follow on from my “The Unitary Plan, the Recent Valuations” and drill down … Continue reading Unitary Plan Analysis – Land and Footprints
POAL’s Submission on the Regional Policy Statement – Issues of the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan Those who have followed the blog for a while know that I ran a … Continue reading Port of Auckland – Relocation and the Unitary Plan
A debate has already cropped up on Twitter from those on the Left side of the spectrum which means Josh’s post has hit the mark.
However, I do note that Slater has become a diminished force at the moment and no longer holds such influence as he did at his peak in the last term of this current National administration.
That said there is nothing stopping Slater nor others that are equally as diminished such as The Daily Blog from coming back in MK2 form. The question is not whether they are being able to but more to the point are they willing to.
Translating this into Local Government level I have noted the same five Councillors who went against the Deputy Mayor in the Mayoral Censure Motion last year are in some what a diminished capacity themselves with their attacks against the rest of the Council.
While I give credit for being predictable their attacks against the other 15 Councillors (incl, the Deputy Mayor) falls into the same situation John has mentioned about the Democrats vs the Koch Brothers.
Now there is plenty of opportunity to be had with the valuations vs rates vs Unitary Plan saga as is. But these five Councillors are fighting the ever changing war using the same battle tactics that has so far denied Conservatives taking control of the Council in itself. New blood using both new and old tools such as path pounding and blogs seem to be carving out their strategies in the war that is valuations vs Rates vs the Unitary Plan. Whether this new blood steps up for the full assault and test themselves via the voting processes in 2016 has yet to be seen but I bet they are working such strategies as I write this.
As for blogs having influence at Local Government Level? Yes they do and can wield quite a bit of influence for better or for worse with quite mixed results in both success and failures.
Two particular blogs hold such prestige with two main stream media pieces also holding that prestige as well. And all four treat it with absolute respect as well even when the four might differ in opinion.
This article from Politico.com made me think about the political influence of bloggers in New Zealand and the electoral value in attacking them.
Bloggers will, from time to time, come across information that brings about the downfall of a political figure. They will also be involved, on occasion, in conversations with or about a politician that eventually brings about their demise.
Information, when combined with a significant audience is power and, in this day and age, information is a tradable commodity. The bigger the audience gets, the more influential the blogger becomes.
So, if as above, some bloggers are significantly influential, attacking ones that work against you makes sense, right? Drawing attention to their lies, or misinformation or their misinterpretation, deliberate or otherwise, of events and setting the record straight once and for all will diminish the influence of the blog and its author, won’t it?
Attacking the source will…
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From Auckland Council:
Auckland Council says the continuing heavy traffic on its website means people may still experience intermittent delays in accessing property valuations.
People are advised to phone the council’s call centre on 0508 000 021 if they are unable to access their property value via the website and will receive this information over the phone. The centre has increased staff to cope with extra demand.
Acting Chief Finance Officer Kevin Ramsay says more capacity has been added to the website overnight, but if activity remains at the levels experienced over the past two days the problems may continue.
“The reality is that the demand is unprecedented and even with the additional capacity, people may still experience issues.”
Property owners have started receiving their notices of valuation in the mail.
Council property valuations – key facts:
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Valuations Walk-Through: Run Through The Valuations
Valuations and the Unitary Plan: The Unitary Plan, the Recent Valuations
The GIS errors from the Council website is hampering research into land values in our industrial estates which what the second part of a podcast (first was this morning: The Unitary Plan, the Recent Valuations ) will be zeroing in on. Frustrating I know.
We need liberalisation in the Unitary Plan to smooth off sharp valuation rises I noted Transport Blog yesterday took a look at land and capital valuation movements noting where … Continue reading The Unitary Plan, the Recent Valuations
Still facing issues – and now a phone number From Auckland Council: Update: Auckland Council website – 3.45pm Auckland Council says an unprecedented level of activity on its … Continue reading Council Website Updates
Talking Southern Auckland 