The first part of the Wellington Bypass is open.
The bypass is a road extension that adjusts the route of traffic coming through the city, to circumvent some semi-central areas in favour of a more peripheral route. In the process, a historic and vibrant chunk of central city has been turned into roading.
I’ve written about this before (and linked to another’s discussion). The changes to the end of the Cuba precinct (and to Cuba St itself) are profound.
It has been pointed out – most often by Mayor Prendergast and her crew – that the reason for the upper-Cuba-St hippie aesthetic was the artificially low rent due to the Bypass being in question, and that building the bypass simply ends an artificial situation. To which I say, lower Cuba St has its hippie aesthetic just fine without any artificially low rents, thank you very much. If the bypass had been definitively stopped, and rents returned to market levels, the development of that area would have proceeded in an organic fashion and the aesthetic would I suspect have simply taken on a new, more upmarket form. Infinitely preferable to driving a big road through a chunk of the inner city.
Apart from what has been lost, the psychological barrier erected by the new road is already heavy in the minds of Wellingtonians. It worked its way in across a long period of construction. In fact, it’s a relief to have the road open, because it is such an improvement over the construction site we’ve had for the past year. BUt the mental map of every Wellingtonian has shifted to accommodate this new road.
None of this is major. It isn’t as though suddenly I feel dizzy and nauseous when I’m in town. It is however real, and more importantly it is pernicious. This is a significant step away from the kind of Wellington I feel we should have towards one that we should avoid.
All of the above is speculative and subjective. There is no set of facts that could convince a Bypass-backer that the new road creates an unpleasant psychological barrier or squanders the area’s value. However, it is crucial to remember the other side of the coin, which is that the rationale given for the bypass was, and is, nonsensical. The bypass will not significantly improve congestion in the city, as car traffic will expand to meet the available roadspace. The bypass will not improve the productivity of Wellington’s business community, as was so earnestly claimed and debated in the Council Chambers. These claims are, quite simply, ridiculous. And they have cost us $40 million, and one more chunk of the city’s soul.