The Architectural Centre will be opposing this decision.

We believe the Council’s advice to Councillors was not provided with reasonable consideration of the range of development options, particularly considering physical and cultural amenity value of the bridge.

The demolition of the Bridge will return the city to pre-1990s urban design which relied on level crossing of Jervois Quay. Pedestrians get killed at light-controlled road crossings. Just last year (June 2023), two women were struck at the lights on Cable St – just a few hundred metres from where the City to Sea Bridge is planned to be replaced with lights. After months in hospital one of these women died. And yes it happened at mid-night, but no there is no room for victim blaming here. No fault can be pushed onto the pedestrians – the cause was a drunk driver running a red-light. The image below is what we are going back to, 1992, except now vehicular traffic density has trebled.

We are not talking here about 1,000-year earthquake risks, we are talking about something that is happening every day. I use the lights at Queens Wharf multiple times a week and every time I am aware that the only thing protecting me on that long walk across 6 lanes is driver patience and good will. Most drivers have patience and good will, but it only takes one being distracted, grumpy, in a rush or having their own accident, to cause a life changing disaster for a pedestrian.

This is one physical amenity the bridge currently provides.

Simon Wilson has eloquently described the cultural amenity value of the bridge in his piece “Wellington, not a step too far: Save City to Sea Bridge”. To quote:

… the City to Sea Bridge could only be here. It tells us our history and our aspirations: stories of navigation and exploration, of the indigenous people and the settler communities. It represents struggle and achievement. It celebrates artistry and poetry and what you can do with axes and wood. It looks bloody amazing.

It’s a bridge whose whales and seabirds and rough-hewn timber summon the natural world and the legends of our place in it: how we got here and what it’s like to be alive, here on the edge of an enormous ocean.

You walk up the gentle slope from the city, and it’s like you’re on a wave, cresting, as the sea and the waterfront are suddenly revealed before you. You’re flanked by those great creatures of the sea, the whales and the birds, and six pou hoist their symbols of a rich cultural past to the heavens above you, and the beautiful harbour awaits your arrival.

It has wow. Very few things have that much wow.

It is a taonga, in every sense of that much overused word.

Do I need to say more?

See also NZstuff on TikTok: ”Is it really farewell to the City to Sea Bridge? The original construction lead is horrified at the thought. ⁠ ⁠ Trevor Griffiths, who won an award for building excellency at the 1995 the New Zealand Institute of Building Inc’s awards for his work on the bridge, said he was not sold by the amount Wellington City Council (WCC) claims it would cost to strengthen it.⁠ ⁠ The bridge has long been a part of the capital’s cityscape – opened in 1993, it was designed by architects John Gray and Rewi Thompson, with artworks and sculptures by artist Para Matchitt.⁠ ⁠ WCC is set to make a final call on the bridge’s future on December 5. #wlgtn #nz #infrastructure #council #build #nzstuff”