There's a sorry state of affairs in the capital's transport network.
The Island Bay cycleway is Wellington City Council's biggest embarrassment, subject of astronomical budget blowouts, court action, safety concerns - and a community at its wits' end.
The people of Island Bay are rightfully wondering what on earth the council has been doing for several years after it made a promise to fix the cycleway.
At a council committee meeting today Southern Ward councillor Laurie Foon put on her boxing gloves.
She successfully passed an amendment directing council officers to contact Waka Kotahi NZTA and seek funding for the Island Bay Parade upgrade as soon as possible.
"My patience is starting to be tested," she said.
A cyclist herself, Foon also admitted that she came home too often saying to her husband "I had another near-miss today".
But one of her colleagues warned her the council would end up looking like a "child who bores you to tears because they want something they're not going to get".
The upgrade Foon wants is known as the mayor's compromise.
Three years ago, then mayor Justin Lester came up with a $4.1 million solution to build a dedicated cycleway between the footpath and the kerb at the same height, meaning cars could park against it.
Fast-forward one year and that solution skyrocketed to a cost of up to $12m.
Council documents at the time put the cost escalation down to additional drainage work and changing market conditions.
Fast-forward again to the present day and still nothing has been done, apart from remediation of some "ghost markings" on the road.
Wellington City councillor Laurie Foon. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The project that initially cost less than $2m to build was unsuccessfully pitched as a $14m shovel-ready project this year to fix.
Southern Ward councillor Fleur Fitzsimmons said in today's meeting that while the situation remains unresolved, the council's social licence to build more cycleways is severely compromised.
Councillor Diane Calvert described the cycleway as a continuing monument to the council's inability to deliver.
She said she was uncomfortable spending so much money on a 1.7km cycleway that "doesn't really connect anywhere".
Councillor Rebecca Matthews, exasperated, said she couldn't believe how much time and energy has been expended into one cycleway.
It was revealed in the meeting there had been some sort of communication malfunction between NZTA, council officers and councillors, stemming back to October 2018 when the council announced it would now be considering the cycleway redesign as part of a wider project in the southern suburbs to maximise possible NZTA funding.
This was called Newtown Connections, which needed further design work and consultation.
The council had previously understood NZTA's position to be that the Newtown Connections route would need to be constructed before it would push money out the door for the Island Bay cycleway redesign.
But an email this week from NZTA walking and cycling principal adviser Sharleen Hannon suggests the agency has now changed its position to considering a funding application once a Newtown Connections route is agreed upon.
Wellington City councillor Nicola Young. Photo / Mark Mitchell
It left councillors in a real wrangle today, especially after the failed $14m shovel-ready pitch.
Mayor Andy Foster was reluctant to go back to NZTA, as Foon's amendment proposed: "We can ask; I think, frankly, we're whistling in the wind."
Foster said it would be like essentially asking NZTA to formalise their rejection of funding the cycleway re-design as a stand-alone project.
"By all means ask, but please don't make ourselves look stupid in asking for something we're unlikely to get. Unfortunately I think we are going to have to go back to that community and have another conversation about what is the best option going forward for the cycleway."
Councillor Nicola Young voted against Foon's bid to go back to Waka Kotahi, saying NZTA had always made it clear they were not going to fund it.
"I think if we go back and ask again it's like a child who bores you to tears because they want something they're not going to get and I think we just have to grow up and realise we made a huge mistake with the Island Bay cycleway. It's our problem to fix."
Calvert and councillor Simon Woolf joined her in voting against it, but the trio were well in the minority.
The one thing that is clear is people want the council to get on with it.
Wellington mayor Andy Foster. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Yesterday Newstalk ZB hosted a Spotlight on Wellington Transport Election Special panel.
One of the panelists, Dr Caroline Shaw of Otago University's Department of Public Health, said the council was creating a rod for its own back.
She said the way council has tried to build cycleways in the city, mainly the consultation process, has been a "disaster".
Asked how she would do it better, Shaw said: "We wouldn't be consulting on every 100 metres of road in this very intensive way … we'd be setting out a whole network of cycle lanes and we'd be consulting on that."
Island Bay has been consulted on the 1.7km of cycleway re-design as well as the network of cycleways in the southern suburbs.
