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Transmission Gully - Source: ONE News -
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After decades of debate over how to fix the northbound route out of Wellington there is still no solution in sight.
And meanwhile, the cost keeps rising.
The entire stretch from Wellington to Levin is being reviewed and the Transport Ministry has admitted Transmission Gully would cost more than the billion dollars forecast and may not even solve traffic woes.
The hilly landscape makes the project challenging but Fran Wilde from the Greater Wellington Regional Council says if the road was being built n Auckland it would have been built decades ago.
American marines could have solved the problem in the 1940s when they offered to build and pay for a road through Transmission Gully but our government at the time turned them down and the debate began - create Transmission Gully or upgrade the current road.
Earlier this year the government pulled commitment to the gully but for the first time pledged full funding for State Highway 1 between Levin and Wellington.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce says the whole corridor has to be worked out.
"How would people feel if you spend a billion dollars on Transmission Gully and they go up the first time and find themselves coming to a screeching halt at the Paraparaumu lights," says Joyce.
A review on the entire stretch of road is under way and the alternative of expanding the coastal highway is again being looked at.
A recommendation on whether Transmission Gully is preferred is expected in the next few months, with a fixed decision by the end of the year.
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