Category: Planning

Looking at all things planning.
Check the Sub Categories for more specific forms of planning

Holiday Highway to where?

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Certainly isn’t to Northland that is for sure

 

I will let the others talk about the Holiday Highway and so on.

But I shall leave you with this straight out of the USA; home of abandoned malls, abandoned strip malls and now this

 

A shame I and my children have to carry this can from my parents’* generation who seemed not quite having a grasp on transport, planning and social economics…

*not all from the Baby Boomer generation are bad with their economics. Sadly though they get tarred by the bad decisions made by their associates…

Council Consolidating Buildings

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From Seven to Three

 

From Auckland Council

Council accommodation moves to save $100m

 

Auckland Council is in the process of reducing the number of its council buildings in the central city from seven to three to save money and create more efficient and productive work spaces.

The council purchased the former ASB Tower at 135 Albert Street in July 2012 for $104m and staff are presently moving in. The move to 135 Albert Street results in savings of about $2.7m a year over the next 10 years. Over the next 20 years, the savings will be over $100m. 

 A decision on future accommodation had to be made as leases on rented buildings were coming up for renewal.

Purchasing 135 Albert Street was the cheapest of all options examined, which included staying in existing buildings, building a new building or purchasing an alternative existing building.

Savings are being realised through exiting leases on rented offices, operational efficiencies, better utilisation of space and reduced time travelling between offices. Staff productivity and effectiveness are also expected to improve as teams and groups work more closely together.

In the long term, approximately 2400 staff will be accommodated in 135 Albert Street, including space for elected members.

Some departments that were in Bledisloe House have already moved to 135 Albert Street, enabling staff in rented office space, such as on Hereford Street, to move to Bledisloe House or Albert Street.

As part of the current work to upgrade Bledisloe Lane, the customer services centre and reception presently in the ground floor area of the Civic Administration Building will be moved into the ground level of Bledisloe House.

These works sit within existing renewal budgets.

—ends—

 

 

 

Speculation Second Harbour Crossing (as Road only) Could Be Accelerated

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Labour questions Government on leaked document that states Prime Minister is set to announce advancing second harbour crossing in August (on the campaign)

 

I caught this from Labour’s Phil Twyford and thought that was the joke rather than Minister of Transport Gerry Brownlee offering up his resignation:

 

As expected Twitter lit up with a lot of people Tweeting their displeasure over this apparent upcoming announcement.

Road Only Auckland Harbour Crossing “Makes No Sense”

The Campaign for Better Transport said today that the Government’s idea of an additional road only Waitemata Harbour Crossing hasn’t been thought through.

“We all know that the Northern Motorway and approaches are notoriously congested at peak times, so local support probably stems from the belief that this congestion will somehow be solved,” said spokesperson Cameron Pitches.

“However, the net effect of a road only crossing will be that in the morning peak, the Auckland CBD will be flooded with thousands of extra single occupant cars looking for a car park. The Central Motorway Junction will also be a bottleneck without more lanes, but there is no room for more.

“And in the evening peak the already congested Northern Motorway will grind to a halt, as six lanes converge into three.”

Mr Pitches says a far better solution would be a rail only crossing that would extend from the City Rail Link to Albany on the North Shore.

“The Northern Busway is enormously popular and is a great example of a system that can carry far more people at peak times than single occupant cars. High capacity rail would be the logical next step.”

Mr Pitches said that a recent report identified that the cost of a rail link connecting the City Rail Link to Albany on the North Shore would be about $2.5bn.

“It is clear that the Government’s proposal and any alternatives have not been through Treasury’s better business case process.  There is no urgency with the project either as the yet to be completed Western Ring Route is designed to reduce traffic volumes on the bridge,” said Mr Pitches.

The Government is yet to make an official announcement on how a new crossing would be funded, but Mr Pitches suspects it would have to be tolled due to the multi-billion dollar cost of the project.

“The Government also needs to be honest and reveal how much the toll will be for the new crossing, and if the current Harbour Bridge will be tolled as well.”

“It just makes no sense.  The Government has just been caught out not doing a comprehensive assessment of alternatives for the Basin Reserve.  You would think they would want to avoid making the same mistake twice,” concludes Mr Pitches.

For more analysis of the proposed Harbour Crossing, visit transportblog.co.nz: http://bit.ly/1niNuZq

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And of course I picked up this from Councillor George Wood: This will mean that the SkyPath will now not be required Keith. Savings all around.

I am also not particularly amused that all the millions spent on revitalising the City Centre and surrounds to turn it from its car dominated past into a more humanised place will be wasted with the City Centre to be turned back into a car sewer rat run thanks to the second crossing funnelling all the cars from the North Shore back into the City Centre…