Sim Wellington 2007 Ultimate Edition (patch 2)

Long time, no post

2010-10-31T20:10:00.001+13:00

Long time, no post. I'm posting on my blog over at punk.co.nz these days.

Opening up Manners Mall

2008-11-29T14:11:00.001+13:00

Here is my submission on the proposed reconfiguration of Manners Mall and surrounds. Quite a major change, in fact, perhaps the biggest change in the area since Civic Square. I hope a lot of people make submissions on this.

See Restoring the Golden Mile - Bus Route & Street Changes.

1. Opening Manners Mall to buses

Bus priority
The proposal ignores the already limited provisions for public transport in the draft Nguaranga to Airport corridor plan. The plan clearly states that priority will be given to public transport through this corridor. In particular it includes "dedicated bus lanes all along the route at peak morning and evening times."

This promise should be adhered to in the design. Manners Street should be closed to general traffic along its entire length.

Pedestrian space
There is a significant loss of pedestrian space with the removal of Manners Mall that should be re-established elsewhere as part of the project. Instead the proposal in its current form takes space from pedestrians and provides more space to cars.

Lower Cuba St should be turned into a mall as part of the project.

The 35 car-parks on lower Cuba St and 15 car-parks on eastern Manners St would be replaced by the 65 new car-parks on Dixon St, Victoria St, and Wakefield St, meaning there is still a gain for cars, but no loss for pedestrians.

If additional parking is absolutely required, a further 10 new car-parks could be provided at the bottom of the lower Cuba St mall. This could be similar to the parking provided on western Gray St. However, the benefits of additional parking should be seriously considered as it will only induce more traffic to the area.

Relocated bus stops
The proposed location of the bus stops at the Manners St and Cuba St intersection is inappropriate. These would be a major obstruction to pedestrian movement on what will become very narrow footpaths (3.5-4m) for such a highly used pedestrian route.

Instead, the existing Manners St, Dixon St, Cuba St, Courtenay Central, and St James bus stops should be rationalised to a new bus stop on Manners St alongside Te Aro Park.

The fewer bus stops will provide faster movement of buses. The location alongside Te Aro Park allows room for buses to pass other stopped buses. The extra room and the potential length of a bus stop at Te Aro Park also allows for different bays to be allocated to different routes, further improving the efficiency of bus movements. Allocated bays could also be implemented at the Courtenay Plc bus stop.

The Willis St bus stops should be relocated further south, to the section of Willis St between Mercer St and Manners St. Doing this will even out the spacing between bus stops after the rationalisation suggested above.

Closing Willis St
Willis St should be closed to general traffic and Victoria St should be reverted to two-way traffic. Victoria St was reduced to just one lane of southbound traffic for a very long period during the construction of the storm water culvert. This demonstrated the ability for Victoria St to be reduced in capacity without any negative long term impacts.

Traffic to/from Boulcott St that would normally use Willis St and Mercer St could be redirected to reach Victoria St via Dixon St.

The sketch below depicts this possible scenario where a dedicated busway is formed and Victoria St is reverted to two-way traffic.

Western Dixon St is reverted to two-way traffic.

Victoria St between Wakefield St and Manners St is reverted to two-way traffic with one lane in each direction.

Victoria St between Hunter St and Wakefield St is reverted to two-way traffic with two southbound lanes, and one northbound lane.

Road and footpath surfaces
High quality paving should be used throughout the Golden Mile. This should be started with the reconstruction of Manners Mall.

The picture below shows an example of high quality paving on O’Connell St in Dublin, Ireland. The paving pattern is consistent, well finished, and level. The pavers provide good grip while looking good. The roadway itself is level with the kerbs on both sides at the same height. The roadway’s width is consistent; it does not fluctuate. Kerbs are straight and regular. Additional small treatments such as the metal studs are used subtly to add effect, such as increasing visibility and safety.

At present, the north side of Manners Mall is significantly lower than the south side. The reconstruction should provide a level roadway in the centre of the reserve, with the kerbs on either side sitting at equal height. The roadway should allow future conversion to light rail.

To provide a level roadway the footpath on the south side may need to angle up at a slight gradient. The footpath on the north side may need to angle down at a slight gradient and require a central drain. As new building entryways are constructed on the north side the footpath’s gradient can be adjusted and the drain removed at those sections.

Utility tunnels
A shared utility tunnel should be installed as part of the reconstruction. This would allow services to be installed and maintained without disrupting bus and pedestrian movement. It would also prevent damage to the road and footpath surfaces. Plus, it facilitates any future option of installing light rail.

The long term costs of not installing the tunnel are greater than if it is done as part of this project. The actual relocation of many existing services to the shared utility tunnel may be too costly to consider as part of the project. By installing the tunnel and having it ready, it allows such relocations to be carried out as part of any future works or when new services are being installed. Eventually the utility tunnel can be extended through the Golden Mile as other major road works are conducted.

2. Changes to Dixon, lower Cuba, Victoria, Wakefield and Mercer Streets

Dixon St should be traffic calmed. Kerb bulbs should be installed to create pedestrian space for the likes of cafe seating. The intersection with Cuba Mall should be made narrower to improve the connection between the two sections of Cuba Mall.

3. Reducing the speed limit

Reducing the speed limit is ideal, as it will produce a safer pedestrian and cycling environment. The speed limit should also be reduced on streets that intersect with the Golden Mile, in particular, the section of Victoria St between Wakefield St and Dixon St.

The speed limit should also be reduced to 30 kph on Dixon St to make it a safer and more inviting for pedestrians and cyclists.

4. Traffic lights at pedestrian crossings

Bus movements should be improved by removing the general traffic from Courtenay Plc first. However, if implemented these signals should provide priority to pedestrians during non-peak hours.

5. Other comments

The proposal appears to be independent of any serious long term plan for public transport and pedestrian movement in the city. It does not appear to consider any follow on work when the capacity of public transport needs to be increased further. This creates a risk of increased cost and disruption in the future.

The time will come when even a dedicated busway along the Golden Mile is too congested with buses to work effectively. (Some would argue we’re already near that point during peak hours.) With increased demand and density it is inevitable that Light Rail will be the solution to public transport through Wellington’s Growth Spine. Planning for this should start now to reduce future costs and risks.

Where the North Shore/Manukau line could run

2008-06-22T23:07:00.002+12:00

Since Britomart is full.

CBD Rail Routes

2008-06-19T22:42:00.004+12:00

Old picture of possible rail routes for the Wellington CBD (hence some stray cosmic rays have corrupted the middle of it).

A1 - Under the station, down Featherston St to a station sitting in the middle between Willis St and Boulcott St. Ideally a full terminus Britomart style for the EMUs and for loco-hauled services such as the Wairarapa line. I'd envisioned a big development for the station incorporating the demolishing of Airways Corp house, and providing a nice connection through the station from Willis up to Boulcott in line with Chews Lane and Harris St. This is feasible at the moment, but wont be after all the proposed development for that area. Which is exactly why long term plans are good if this were a preferred route.

A2 - Future extension to Courtenay Place for the EMUs only.

B1/B2 - Self Explanatory routes around the waterfront. The B2 route with a terminus was lightly looked at by Opus for some particular study. In this case you'd ideally want to reserve some space here for 4 platforms so some services (e.g. Wairarapa) can stand for a while. This may mean that developments such as the recently proposed one next to Les Mills should be designed to cater for it (again this is why you should have a plan so you can mandate things like that).

SimAuckland -- Rail to the Airport

2008-04-15T12:46:00.003+12:00

I've seen a lot of talk at different times about rail to Auckland Airport. The proposals all appear to be either extending the Onehunga line through Mangere, or head out the back to Manukau.

I've never understood why a link directly across to Otahuhu is not proposed as an option. There are few streets to cross, and not that many properties that would need to be bought. In fact not so long ago the path the line would've run through appears to have been vacant, almost like it was reserved for a road or something.

I also think this has the nice affect of allowing transfers between more lines (see second image).

Is the area too lumpy or something?

2008-03-24T18:43:00.005+13:00

Some example cross sections of what Adelaide Road could look like. These are for a future 26m reserve. Naturally the two-way traffic could be two-lanes one-way, paired with two-lanes on King Street (as per the N2A option). (Naturally two way traffic is better from an urbanist POV though...)

A 21.5m version of these is obvious, just narrow the two traffic lanes to one (wide) traffic lane, paired with King Street. As we know a few chunks of the reserve are already widened to 26m, and much of the rest is currently occupied by empty space, or small twilight buildings due for replacement anyway. The heritage buildings at the John St intersection could easily be moved back 4.5 meters. So widening the rest of the road reserve shouldn't be a problem (except for cost naturally).

Motorway configuration for Pipitea

2007-12-10T19:23:00.000+13:00

This is a quick sketch showing a motorway entry and exit ramps for the Pipitea (railyards) area. If it were ever planned cohesively something of this sort would allow traffic from the southern/eastern suburbs to use the motorway for efficient access to Pipitea. And would also allow connectivity between Hutt Rd and the motorway to better serve Ngaio/Khandallah residents.

ABC Competition (Part 2)

2007-11-24T16:28:00.001+13:00

02. Adelaide Rd (and Cambridge & Kent Tce)

The proposal is that the Adelaide Rd area is intensified as a mixed used area and seen as a secondary commercial district. The height limits along Adelaide Rd are set to 28m, which is suitable for the proposed new width of the road (any lower and this would look like a suburban strip not an avenue). At the edges of the Adelaide area the height limit drops to 16m.

The road itself is widened to 28m in this example, to accomodate a dedicated public transport right-of-way along the Eastern side, dedicated (safe) cycle lanes, and a 3-lane contraflow for vehicles. Should the 3-lanes be unnecessary (e.g. the proposed expressway in Package 1 is to be built) then 1-lane can be removed and used for a median and to widen other pedestrian sections.

The public transport ROW is on the sunny side of the street, along with a wider and more attractive pedestrian edge to allow for more activities, e.g. outdoor cafe seating, to develop as the area intensifies.

A network of lanes is reserved and overtime completed throughout the area to improve pedestrian links. A new small street is completed along the edge of Government House. This provides a visible border to Government House which can be planted and nicely fenced. During this process some land is reclaimed and developed into residential units. This can help fund all of these proposed improvements.

A new entrance to Government House is created on Adelaide Road itself.

NOTE: The current reserve on Adelaide Road allows 26.5m, however it is assumed the council will act quickly to ensure the further 1.5m necessary is reserved before redevelopments begin. Without this it will be difficult to provide all the necessary transport enhancements without making the street very bloody ugly. Or more likely something would go, e.g. cycle lanes, which would be stupid. It might even be sensible to take more than another 1.5m, but I assumed the Council would be against that.

Quick overview map and 3D sketch:

Elevation:

The Cambridge & Kent Tce elevation. A linear park is developed along the Eastern side, as this is the sunny side of the street. This allows pedestrian activities to occur such as outdoor cafe seating. The Light Rail ROW is on the eastern side also, as it can merge into the linear park quite attractively, and allows stops and such to be within the park itself. Also this side does not intersect with major streets (Vivian St, Abel Smith St extension) and all the SoCo lanes. Intersecting the Light Rail ROW with these streets would be more distruptive to traffic (both private and public).

It is thought that a notable feature could be the regeneration of the stream that runs below ground, linking this up with the stream at Waitangi Park when the New World is one-day demolished. Also the general theme of Waitangi Park could be used along the Linear Park to connect the areas (and to reflect the formerly swampy nature of parts of this area).

Elevation:

ABC Competition (Part 1)

2007-11-24T14:24:00.000+13:00

01. Transport

A rudimentary evaluation of the statistics on population growth, mode of travel, and the current capacities, led to the following conclusions.

By 2041, with no major shift in the mode of travel (60% private, 27% public), the indication was: that peak demand would require 4- to 6-lanes of roadway serving the Southern suburbs and 6-lanes of roadway serving the Eastern suburbs. The number of passengers per hour could still be served by bus alone.

By 2041, with a major mode shift towards public transport (40% private, 45% public), the indication was: peak demand would require 3- to 4-lanes of roadway serving the Southern suburbs and 4-lanes of roadway serving the Eastern suburbs. The number of passengers per hour would completely saturate a bus service and a higher capacity Light Rail service would be required along the Growth Spine to alleviate this.

By 2041, with an extreme mode shift towards public transport (35% private, 50% public), the indication was: peak private vehicle demand could be served by 3-lanes of contraflow roadway serving the Southern suburbs and 3-lanes of contraflow roadway serving the Eastern suburbs. The number of passengers per hour would completely saturate a bus service and a higher capacity Light Rail service would be required along the Growth Spine to alleviate this.

Two transport packages are suggested. The first package is significantly more expensive and proposes an entirely new expressway route to serve both the Southern and Eastern suburbs with the same expressway. The estimated cost was $1.2 billion over 30-40 years. The second package upgrades the existing route and demands significant public transport usage. Two variations on this package exist, one includes an covered expressway between The Terrace Tunnels and Mt Victoria Tunnels, the other removes the bypass, replacing it with an extension to Abel Smith St. The estimate cost was $700m to $900m depending on the variation.

Both packages include Light Rail along the Growth Spine as the very first step. This is to encourage a mode shift towards public transport and meet increasing demands placed on the public transport system. This may also head off increasing equipment costs and lead times caused by increasing demand when peak oil causes countries to re-invest in public transport. New Zealand cannot afford to compete with other richer countries for this equipment.

Key to packages

Terrace Tunnel and Shell Gully Viaduct duplication

Future Tram-train or EMU subway right-of-way reserved in plans now for future construction post 2040-2050

Light Rail right-of-way, some parts shared with bus services

Te Aro Tunnel, a 4- to 6-lane cut-and-cover tunnel that ends at an at grade intersection with Taranaki St to reduce cost and better control traffic flows

Memorial Park Tunnel, a 4-lane cut-and-cover tunnel that starts at an at grade intersection with Taranaki St and the Te Aro Tunnel, this would designed and built in conjunction with the Memorial Park if this variation of Package 2 were selected

Mt Victoria Tunnel duplication and link to Cobham Dr

Possible future Mt Cook tunnel to link Southern suburbs to the CBD and Te Aro Tunnel (post 2040-2050) if Package 2 is selected and Adelaide Rd ever became to congested

New Street in Newtown to better distribute traffic, provide more pedestrian linkages as the area intensifies, and permit the closure of parts of Riddiford St to allow a Light Rail/bus right-of-way. Land reserved in council plans immediately.

Newtown Transit Tunnel (for Light Rail and busses serving Eastern suburbs), one possible example of a route

Newtown/Zoo Transit Tunnel (for Light Rail and possibly some busses serving Eastern suburbs), one possible example of a route, 20-50% cheaper than above option

Possible future Light Rail/Streetcar extensions

Te Aro Tunnel (Package 1), 6-lanes cut-and-cover, with on/off ramps to major streets

Mt Cook Tunnel (Package 2), 6-lanes, twin bore expressway

Newtown Tunnel (Package 2), 4-lanes, twin bore expressway

Abel Smith St extension

Package 1 -- the "OMG I hope we strike it rich in the Southern Ocean Basin package"

The major feature of this is the new expressway route which could be completed in phases, this might allow reduced construction costs as one of the bores is completed first, opened to traffic, then the tunnel boring machine (TBM) and associated equipment is reused to complete the second bore. The TBM used for the Newtown Tunnel section might also be able to be used for the two 2-lane expressway bores, and the Light Rail transit tunnel bore.

The expressway would have intersections with Hutchison Rd/John St serving Vogeltown, and Hall/Adelaide Road serving Southern suburbs, and Riddiford St serving Southern suburbs. From the tunnel opening to Riddiford St much of it would be in a trench. The Riddiford Street intersection is also the intersection with the Newtown Tunnel section of the expressway to the Eastern suburbs. This would be at grade so to be less visually intrusive, and later a viaduct completed only if required.

Package 1 Map:

Package 2 -- the "NZ is not rich from oil like Norway package"

This package is fairly well understood and is the expected evolution of the city's existing transport routes.

The major variation whether the Memorial Park will have a tunnel constructed, if not then the bypass would be forgone entirely, and the main route would be via Vivian St and Abel Smith St.

Package 2 Map:

Appendix, definitions, assumptions, constraints, etc.

"Southern suburbs" incorporates: Mt Cook-Wallace Street, Vogeltown, Kingston, Island Bay West, Island Bay East, Melrose, Berhampore, Newtown West, Newtown East, Adelaide

"Eastern suburbs" incorporates: Hataitai, Kilbirnie East, Kilbirnie West, Lyall Bay, Strathmore Park, Miramar South, Miramar North, Karaka Bay-Worser Bay, Seatoun, Maupuia

The WRC expects population growth of 0.5% for the region, however

Growth in the Southern and Eastern suburbs has been 1% over the past 10 years and 2% over the past five years according to Census data. With the major intensification strategies, and increasing migration, a sustained 2% population increase along the growth spine is assumed.

Based on taking the average from various sources the following transport capacities are assumed.
- Metro - 40,000pph
- Suburban rail - 30,000pph
- Light rail - 15,000pph (dedicated ROW and priority at interesections)
- Bus lane - 7,500pph (some priority at intersections)
- Motorway lane - 2,000vph
- Road lane - 1,500vph

Sea level rise will not threaten the CBD or Kilbernie, or any sea level rise will be mitigated in some way.

Any strategy developed for Wellington will be respected by the wider regional strategy (i.e. the region will not continue to build roads to dump cars into Wellington city if the local strategy favours public transport growth).

EMUs will continue to provide the backbone of Wellington’s wider public transport systems as conversion to a Tram-Train or Light Rail operation is inappropriate in the near term due to many reasons including the recent investment in new EMUs, increased cost per passenger (when suburban rail already exists), and capacity/speed reductions.

The following costs are based on taking the average from various recent international projects of similar types and Transit/Council reports.
- Dual 3-lane road tunnels: $246,000 NZD per metre
- Dual 2-lane road tunnels: $187,000 NZD per metre
- Single 3-lane road tunnel: $132,000 NZD per metre
- Single 2-lane road tunnel: $93,000 NZD per metre
- Heavy rail 2-lane tunnel: 131,000 NZD per meter

Underground Easement

2007-10-02T12:25:00.000+13:00

Quick sketch of where I think the Council should maintain an underground easement for a possible rail tunnel connecting either a Tram-Train ROW around the Quays to Taranaki St, or possibly even a subway on the same alignment (as described by the Opus report).

The orange line shows the alignment. The orange box a potential underground platform servicing it. The solid blue outline shows the new Holiday Inn, and the dashed blue outline the proposed new 1 Featherston St building.

Axis of Memorial

2007-08-04T00:29:00.000+12:00

I got bored tonight and inspired by the Memorial Park competition I thought I'd sketch up my idea for said park.

See here, here, and here for some background.

The idea is based something I think is a cool fact about Wellington, and which I'm pretty sure is a complete accident. Parliament, the Cenotaph, Post Office Square, Civic Square, "that-place-that-should-be-a-square", and the War Memorial line up perfectly on a north-south axis. One of my favourite cities in the world is Washington, DC, I love the grand avenues, the grid, the grand parks and memorials everywhere, with surely the most well conceived street layout of all time.

Anyway, Wellington can never be DC, but that doesn't mean Wellington couldn't make a connection between its memorials that spans the city. The Axis just seems too cool not to be that connection and for emphasis in any planning. Future sculptures, monuments, memorials, could be located in the squares along the axis.

The idea carves a parade avenue along the Axis through the nearby area, depending on how ambitious the Gods of Wellington wanted to be it could stretch up to "that-place-that-should-be-a-square", but the intersection of Taranaki and Vivian seems a good place to stop. The grid is completed with the extension of Abel Smith Street. The bypass (Karo Drive) is destroyed and SH1 uses Vivian + Abel Smith Sts. Potentially Mt Cook school would have to be relocated because of the busy Abel Smith St extension.

Or, for more money, the bypass isn't destroyed, and a four-lane tunnel cut under the park for SH1 traffic.