The Government has asked NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi officials to investigate a mega tunnel underneath Wellington from The Terrace to Kilbirnie, the Herald can exclusively reveal. 

The tunnel would bypass the inner city and stretch about 4km, making it longer than Auckland’s Waterview Tunnel at 2.4km. 

Twin two-lane tunnels would run north of the existing Terrace Tunnel to Wellington Rd. 

Transport Minister Simeon Brown has requested advice on a long tunnel’s technical feasibility, cost, and funding and financing options. 

In the meantime, planning will continue for a second Mt Victoria Tunnel and upgrades to the Basin Reserve. 

On the campaign trail, National promised to prioritise building a second Mt Victoria tunnel with spades in the ground within its first term in Government. This was estimated to cost $2.2 billion. 

However, Brown said the long tunnel option aligned with priorities in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport, including reduced travel times, greater resilience along the State Highway 1 corridor, and improved safety for road users, pedestrians and cyclists. 

A long tunnel could make trips in the Wellington region to the airport up to 15 minutes faster, he said. 

This is compared to motorists saving between two and three minutes for the current parallel or diagonal tunnel proposals at Mt Victoria. 

“The option would also see better urban amenity through greater reallocation of surface level road space to active modes and public transport in the CBD and greater opportunities for housing intensification,” Brown said. 

“Enhanced regional connectivity to the airport and hospital would also be achieved with reduced city and state highway congestion.” 

Transport Minister Simeon Brown has requested advice on a long tunnel's technical feasibility, cost and funding and financing options. Photo / Mark Mitchell 

Brown said the long tunnel could be built with less disruption to the city centre and have less impact on public and private properties required for other options. 

“To rebuild our economy and ensure people and freight can get to where they need to go quickly and safely, we need to move at pace to deliver the infrastructure our country needs.” 

The existing tunnels would be repurposed to connect the city centre with the highway and outer suburbs. 

One of the first things the new Government did was put the city’s beleaguered Let’s Get Wellington Moving plan out of its misery - announcing an agreement with local councils to dissolve the scheme entirely and move on. 

This plan included a second Mt Victoria tunnel and mass rapid transit from the central city to the south. 

The Herald revealed in mid-2021 a long tunnel was being considered as part of the Let’s Get Wellington Moving plan. 

Various options in documents released under the Official Information Act mentioned a long tunnel, although the details of it were entirely redacted. 

The mysterious long tunnel never saw the light of day. 

Let’s Get Wellington Moving’s Governance Reference Group chairman Daran Ponter said at the time it had been rejected. 

“It’s largely on the basis of cost and not doing the job that we need it to do.” 

Ponter said the cost of the long tunnel was “eye-watering” and going ahead with it would mean project partners couldn’t deliver much of anything else. 

Green Party transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter has said a long tunnel would be “outrageously expensive” and unnecessary. 

“It’s really a big distraction from what Wellington needs to invest in to actually make it easier for people to get around with public transport, walking and cycling.” 

Investment in those three transport modes would free up existing roads for trips which needed to be made by car, Genter said. 

This story was originally published on the Herald, here