John MacDonald: Forget the naysayers and build the cycleway

What’s the thing you hear people say time-and-time again about the way we seemed to just get on with the job of building infrastructure back in, say, the 1970s?

What’s the most common thing you hear people say about that?

They say “our forebears had the foresight”. And that’s what I hope Christchurch city councillors have when they decide whether or not to press-on with the controversial Wings to Wheels cycleway on Harewood Rd.

Because,believe it or not, it’s back on the table after costs have skyrocketed and the government money that was originally going to be coming to help pay for it has been pulled.

The overall gist is that if the council wants to go further with this particular cycleway project, it’s going to have to come up with about an extra $10 million over and above what’s already been spent and what’s left in the budget.

So far, the council has spent $6.2 million on the project without any shovels hitting the ground and it’s only got $18.5 million left in the budget. And there’s a gap of about $10 million. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
What's the thing you hear people say time and time again.
What's the thing you hear people say time and time
again about the way we seemed to just get on
with the job of building infrastructure back in say, the
seventies of the eighties. What's the most common thing you
hear people say about that? They say, our four bears

(00:34):
had the foresight. Our four bears had the foresight, they say.
And that's what I hope Christich City councilors have when
they decide whether or not to press on with the
controversial Wings to Wheels cycle way on Herewind Road, because,
believe it or not, it's back on the table after

(00:56):
costs have skyrocketed, and after the government money that was
originally going to be coming to help pay for it
has been pulled. Running through some of the numbers shortly,
but the overall gist is that if the council wants
to go further with this particular cycleway project, it's going
to have to come up with an extra ten million
dollars over and above what's already been spent and what's

(01:21):
left in the budget. So far, the Council has spent
six point two million dollars on the project without any
shovels hitting the ground, and it's only got eighteen point
five million dollars left in the budget. There's a gap
of about ten million, at least ten million. Nevertheless, despite that,

(01:45):
I hope that our councilors have this foresight that people
like to credit past leaders with, and I hope they
have the fortitude to say, you know what, this is
going to cost a truckload more money than we thought
we'd have to spend, and it is a truckload more
money than we want to spend, but we're going to

(02:05):
do it for the generations to come. That's what I
hope they think. That's what I hope they do. I'm
not going to get bogged down in numbers, but you
might remember that it was back in twenty nineteen when
the Council came up with the plan for the four
and a half killer meter cycleway on Herewood Road. At
the cost back then was expected to be nineteen million dollars,

(02:26):
with half of the money coming from the government through NZTA.
Of course, as things do with these projects, costs went up.
Initially they went up to twenty two point seven million,
and now the figure is twenty eight point five million
all up. So the council what it's done is it's
put out a range of options to be considered, which

(02:47):
range from pressing on with the thing at one end
and spending millions more than they expected to at the
other end of the spectrum putting the whole thing on
hold indefinitely. And in the middle of those two extremes,
there are other options, such as building a shorter cycle
way that was still cost twenty million. The Council's also

(03:08):
suggesting that instead of going for what we like to
call the over engineered options, that could just paint lines
on the road and put in traffic lights at three intersections.
But that option, even that option would still cost ten
and a half million anyway, So why would you bother
with that half hearted measure. I know I've often said,
you know what's wrong with a few white lines, But

(03:30):
if you get to spend spend ten and a half
million dollars, you mails we'll spend twenty eight million dollars.
There are some other cheaper alternatives to seven of them
all up. I'm not going to go into detail about
every one of them. Otherwise I'm selling we're running some
sort of council committee meeting, which we're not. I see though,
in the news today, Victoria Henstock, Council of Victoria Henstock,

(03:53):
is saying that she's pleased to see that there are
several options on the table. But of course she's pleased
because she's been opposed to the Herewood Road cycle away
from the get go. But this is where she's wrong.
She's saying today, quote, this is a sense of approach.
We cannot keep pouring money into projects that we cannot
afford and are not wanted by the local community, as
they keep telling me. End of quote. And that is

(04:16):
where Counselor Victoria Henstock is wrong. That's the problem right there,
all wrapped up on that quote, when you get politicians
who are only interested in what the people in the
here and now think, and in particular the people in
the here and now who complain. Because of course, of
course Counselor Henstock is going to hear from people who

(04:38):
are anti the cycle way. She's not going to hear
from the people who, in say, ten years time, are
going to think this cycle way is absolutely brilliant. She's
not going to hear from the people who in ten
years time will be saying, wasn't it great that our
city leaders had the foresight to bite the bullet. They
had the fortitude to spend the extra money and make

(05:02):
sure we can ride our bikes safely. That's what I
hope people will be able to say, and that's why
instead of tinkering around the edges and coming up with
some sort of half hearted alternative that will still cost
a lot of money, I hope the council doesn't give in,
and I hope it presses on as planned.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
For more from Category Mornings with John McDonald. Listen live
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