Wellington City Council announce that it’s only six weeks until Manners Mall is no more and the buses will be zapping back and forth under their shiny new wires.
The $11 million project has suffered its fair share of delays. The decision to ditch Manners Mall, despite its own multi-million dollar make over ($1.6 million in 2003), was taken on 4 June 2009. The Mayor Kerry Prendergast called the mall “shoddy”. Only 4 councillors voted to save it: Hayley Wain, Jo Coughlan, Leonie Gill, Bryan Pepperell.
Original plans had to be changed which saw the council needing to widen the road and narrow the footpath. Legal action further slowed progress but the political busker and his City is Ours action group had their action to stop the busway thrown out by the Environment Court. He resorted to attacking Willis street with a sledgehammer.
Construction work also encountered its share of frustrations. Some time was probably lost fixing the biggest leak in Wellington since 2006. People also reported workers being asleep on the job:
“REPORTS of workers sleeping on the job as progress on the $11.1 million bus lane project in Manners Mall grinds to a halt are causing retailers to fear the project is dragging over schedule.
Hurricane Jeans owner David Byrne is leading calls from the mall’s retailers for more urgency to complete the project because his shops, and others, had suffered a 25 per cent loss of trade each day since work began.
His staff have reported seeing subcontractors sleeping in trucks at the site and others taking breaks of several hours. This week work at the site has slowed to a crawl.
Wellington City Council says the project has hit a “hiatus” but is still on track for completion in mid- September.”
But it seems like the wait is finally over, although it looks like September has become December. One hopes that the additional Terrace/Mt Vic Tunnels and/or light rail projects will go more smoothly.
WCC Watch 