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Transmission Gully: Public back a speed limit lift to 110km/h, but change is not happening fast

Transmission Gully: Public back a speed limit lift to 110km/h, but change is not happening fast

More than 90% of commuters want a faster Transmission Gully, including the Transport Minister, but a long-touted speed limit increase will not happen any time soon. Ahead lies a summer of disruption on the $1.25 billion motorway project, with 20km needing to be rebuilt over the next six months, while transport officials continue to work through a bureaucratic process to consider the speed increase. The 27km motorway remains technically unfinished, despite opening to the public in March 2022. A 110km/h speed limit has long been on the cards for the road, with new figures released by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) showing overwhelming public support for an increase. Public consultation between May and July this year received 2071 responses on increasing the limits for Transmission Gully and Raumati Straights. Of those responses, 92% supported an increase while only 5% were against. The rest had mixed views or were unsure, figures released under the Official Information Act reveal. Transmission Gully. Photo / Mark Mitchell Transport Minister Chris Bishop told the Herald that “like over 90% of submitters, I’m keen to see it happen”. Bishop spoke at an event in Porirua last month to launch a report by Infrastructure New Zealand into the benefits of the route. Advice provided to Bishop before the event by NZTA warned he risked being asked about the status of the speed limit increase. The agency told Bishop it was undergoing a legal process as required, but also raised “known road surface and roughness issues”, which appear to be holding up progress. “The actual risk profile of these issues on raising the speed limit to 110km/h is being evaluated as part of the speed limit review.” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Transport Minister Chris Bishop announce speed increases on 38 roads around New Zealand. Photo / Mark Mitchell Those issues are at the centre of a rework programme, spelling daytime lane closures and full closures at night over summer while 20 lane kilometres of the 27km highway are resurfaced as part of finishing the road. NZTA‘s website states the full decision-making process on a speed increase can take up to between six and 12 months, depending on scoping, design, and funding for necessary infrastructure. That decision must be made independently by the agency’s director of land transport, Brent Alderton. It is unclear how long it will take for the limit to go up once the decision has been made. “The speed limit for both Transmission Gully and Raumati Straights remains at 100km/h until this process is complete”, NZTA’s website states. The Infrastructure NZ report found Transmission Gully shaves an average of nine minutes off trip times, has healthier injury statistics, and delivered $79 million in savings in 2024. “Travel times are shorter and more reliable throughout the day, for both the new road and the old route. Travel time savings range from a median of five minutes across the day, up to 31 minutes in peak times on the most congested days,” the report said. Nobody has died on the stretch of motorway since it opened, and the rate of serious injuries per million vehicles has fallen from 0.6 on the old route to 0.2 on Transmission Gully. Plans for Transmission Gully stretch back more than 100 years. Construction officially began in September 2014, when Prime Minister John Key turned the first soil on the project. It was built under a public-private partnership (PPP) by the Wellington Gateway Partnership (WGP), with NZTA, CPB Contractors, and HEB Construction subcontracted to carry out the design and construction. Then-Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, alongside former ministers Grant Robertson and Michael Wood during their stand-up after the Transmission Gully opening ceremony. Photo / Mark Mitchell The road’s opening was down to the wire in March 2022 and was made possible only after NZTA agreed to defer some quality assurance tests until after the opening, and reduced the requirements for o...

F1: McLaren title rivals looking warily for Max Verstappen’s late charge

F1: McLaren title rivals looking warily for Max Verstappen’s late charge

McLaren’s duelling pair of world championship leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be looking warily in their rear-view mirrors this weekend at the United States Grand Prix for Max Verstappen. With six rounds remaining the two McLarens are separated by just 22 points, with four-time champion Verstappen adrift of Piastri by 63 points but revelling in his recent form after beating both in the past three races. Red Bull’s Verstappen has turned a seemingly lost cause into a thrilling late, if unexpected, charge for a fifth title. Jacques Villeneuve, who won the title in 1997, believes the Dutchman can do it and told Italian daily La Gazetta dello Sport that it will be his “best world championship”. “The two McLaren drivers are suffering too much from the pressure and they need to wake up,” he said. This weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas will pit the McLaren men in a car that has not been updated in recent weeks against a much-revised and potent Red Bull. That there is also a sprint race, the first of three remaining this year, only adds to the potential for shredded nerves. Verstappen has reeled off four consecutive podium finishes and won three of the last four Austin races, only missing out last year when Ferrari claimed a one-two, contenting himself instead with a sprint race win. Max Verstappen's Red Bull leads McLaren's Lando Norris at the F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands, in August. Photo / Red Bull McLaren’s imperious early season form has declined but they still retained the constructors’ crown last time out in Singapore. Team boss Zak Brown said: “Our strategy isn’t changing because we’ve won the constructors. We are approaching this race in the same way as all the others.” Norris took pole last year in Austin and finished fourth, and knows he must beat his 24-year-old Australian teammate Piastri and Verstappen if he is to keep alive his title challenge. Piastri has gone three races without a podium. His best result in Austin was fifth last year after retiring following a crash in 2023. Oscar Piastri has gone three races without a podium finish. Photo / Photosport The tension at McLaren is likely to be matched at Ferrari after a fraught few days of media reports suggesting the team is in disarray and lining up former Red Bull boss Christian Horner as a possible successor to under-pressure team chief Fred Vasseur. Without a win this year, Ferrari and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in particular badly need a result to banish the blues. The Briton has gone 18 races without a top-three finish as he returns to a favourite circuit where he has won five times. “We know we haven’t maximised the potential of our package in the last few races,” said Vasseur, dismissing talk of internal strife. “But the team is united and fully determined to turn things around.” Mercedes will also be hunting success after George Russell’s triumph in Singapore and the belated confirmation that they are retaining an unchanged line-up, with Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli alongside Briton Russell next year. – AFP