Wellington's Golden Mile upgrade poised to begin
Nearly six years on from when work first started on the capital's Golden Mile upgrade, ground has been broken, even though construction contracts are still not signed for the whole project.
Earlier this year Wellington City Council said construction would start in April on the $116 million plan to change Courtenay Place.
It has now confirmed that will start on 4 May, with changes to the intersection of Cambridge and Kent Terraces where work was expected to take eight months before moving to Courtenay Place.
The project will see cars banned from 7am to 7pm on Courtenay Place, along with widened footpaths and a cycle lane.
It was first started under the now disestablished Let's Get Wellington Moving transport plan but has been moved under the control of the city council.
The public's thoughts were first taken on the plan in 2019, but it has since seen delays which have led up to today's sod turning ceremony.
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau was the first to put a shovel in the ground on the intersection of Cambridge and Kent Terrace.
Whanau said in a speech this morning that the project was nearly 10 years in the making.
"For me this is the first day of true transformation on Courtenay Place."
Construction contracts had not been signed for the whole project, and the council could not say when it expected to sign the rest.
However, Whanau said she was "pretty confident" they would be signed before the upcoming local body election.
When pushed for more details on why she believed that she said she'd "made an assumption" that was the case.
RNZ spoke to nearby business owners to get their thoughts.
The owner and director of designer furniture story Thonet, Ainsley Kimber, said changes to the area were needed, but he believed it was the wrong time to do it.
Kimber said that was due to tough economic times and public sector job cuts.
"Spending has dropped and everyone is suffering."
He said the project needed to look at what type of businesses it wanted to attract to Courtenay Place and raised concern about the amount of people sleeping rough on the street.
It would be hard to run a business with construction work underway, he said.
Tasting Room co-owner Duncan Gillespie told RNZ it was a bitter pill to swallow with the current economic climate.
"I can tell you that [for] a lot of businesses down here it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
Gillespie said he wanted more clarity on when the work outside his business would take place.
He was indifferent on whether the Golden Mile changes were needed but said that eventually the road would have to be dug up to fix pipes underneath it, which was also being done has part of the upgrade.
Greater Wellington Regional Councillor Yadana Saw said the Golden Mile would make Courtenay Place a better place to play in, shop in, and recreate in.
"We have to start thinking about the future, and that's not remaining in the status quo."
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