Andrew Little has asked whether an alternate route should be considered after the Kaikoura cost road has been extensively damaged by landslides and slips after Monday’s earthquake.
Roading and rail along the coast is certainly a huge challenge, but I don’t know how much Little has thought about alternate routes.
That corner of the South Island is a mangled mess of mountains riddle with earthquake fault lines.
Mangled mess of mountains
That whole area has an estimated 80,000-100,000 landslips, and inland is more mountainous, especially north of Kaikoura.
Which of these fault lines would an alternative route be better? All valleys follow fault lines.
That is before this week’s earthquakes which are scattered across the region.
Strong For Life
/ 16th November 2016Geez, this fellow is a chump. Where exactly would this alternative route be built Mr Little? There are alternate routes now Mr Little but they are also damaged. The scenic Inland route from Culverden to Kaikoura is blocked in the Waiau area. The road will probably be opened soon but it is twisty and narrow and not suitable for large freight carrying trucks. Until State Highway 1 is rebuilt the Arthurs Pass or Lewis Pass routes will have to be used.
Goldie
/ 16th November 2016Andrew Little was against Transmission Gully – presumably his position has now changed?
Gezza
/ 16th November 2016Be fair. From last year.
Friday 15 May 2015:
‘”Wellington’s infrastructure flaws are back in the spotlight.
Yesterday’s flooding and heavy rain left the capital all but cut off when the two state highways in and out of Wellington were closed to traffic and rail services were cancelled.
Labour Leader Andrew Little says it highlights the need for the Transmission Gully highway connection.
“It must be necessary for the capital city to have alternative forms of entry and egress from the city, whether it’s weather, earthquake, whatever natural disaster.'”
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/wellingtons-infrastructure-flaws-back-in-spotlight/
Goldie
/ 16th November 2016Heh – though Labour’s previous policy was that it costs too much and that it will be reviewed and possibly delayed!
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th November 2016Where would these be, forsooth ? Does he think that if they could be there, they wouldn’t be ? It would cost ???? and might never be necessary. Buildings would have to be demolished to make these exits possible, and new ones built where ?
Thank you, Pete, for pointing out that all valleys are fault lines. That makes me feel really good about where I live.
Gezza
/ 16th November 2016Don’t worry about it Kitty. Most valleys in NZ and elsewhere are actually formed by erosion.
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th November 2016(faints with relief at this news)
Skelton
/ 16th November 2016Of course yes, but will that political penny drop?
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th November 2016I love it that the expression about the penny dropping is still around, when pennies have been gone for 49 years and were probably not used in loos for a while before that. But people still say that the penny has finally/hasn’t dropped yet when someone has/hasn’t caught on to something. It’s like talking about the needle being stuck-change the record, the needle’s stuck on that one !
Klik Bate
/ 16th November 2016Hopefully you got to ‘spend a penny’ today Kitty? XD
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th November 2016It’s funny that people still say that, too ! My mother once had the door held open when she happened not to have a penny coin, and she and the kind holder were caught by the attendant who made my mother pay and be given change.What a jobsworth.
I was told by a male friend that in France, men are charged according to what they go in there to do, and woe betide anyone who tries to sneak into a cubicle when they have only paid for a pee. I don’t know if this is nationwide. My friend thought it rather funny 😀