Like the Sandhills Expressway — a.k.a. the Kapiti Expressway and the Steven Joyce Autobahn — the 27 km motorway from Tawa on the existing motorway to Porirua, north of Wellington, will shorten journeys to and from Waikanae. An official commencement ceremony was held on 22 October.

Looking at the maps, the 27 km doesn’t look to be shorter in terms of distance, but because it bypasses Paremata, Plimmerton, Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki, and should be 100 km/h or 110 km/h all the way, it should cut 10-15 minutes off the road journey.  Thus in non-peak times the trip could be down to 30 minutes.

The highway has been on the drawing board for a lot longer than people think, at least 50 years, and will cost an estimated $850 million — thus combined with what is being spent on the Sandhills Expressway, puts the total cost to over $1.5 billion (and some people complain about a mere $26 million being spent on the flag referendum?)

The present pro-trucking lobby government sees this road as further increasing the time advantage for trucks over trains, although because it incorporates some fairly steep gradients, they aren’t going to gain in terms of fuel consumption.

At the Paekakariki junction point the two Expressways will effectively connect up.

Paekakariki will be about 2 km from the start/end point of the Transmission Gully route although, unlike Paraparaumu and Waikanae, it has no businesses on SH1, except for the Fisherman’s Table restaurant.

The completion date for Transmission Gully is given as 2020, about 3 years after the Kapiti Expressway.