7 September 2021
At Waka Kotahi, we’re guided by the value of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and aim to do our part to preserve New Zealand’s natural taonga (treasures), including native species.
This includes on our Public Private Partnership projects. The Transmission Gully motorway is New Zealand’s first transport infrastructure project delivered in this way.
Throughout construction of the new motorway, which is scheduled to open in late September 2021, substantial work was has been done by the contractor to conserve local plants and animals.
Two million native species, such as grasses, trees and harakeke (flax), have been planted around the new motorway. This has created one of the most significant lowland native bush areas in Te Whanganui a Tara | Wellington region, protecting the land from grazing and encouraging natural regeneration of vegetation. This provides a green corridor for falcon, pipits and other bird life, connecting Kāpiti with Pāuatahanui estuary and Te Onepoto Bay—described by Ngāti Toa as the lungs of the region—in Porirua Harbour.
Looking further back into the past, one of the biggest fish relocation operations in New Zealand happened in 2016 when the Transmission Gully project team worked with Ngāti Toa to relocate over 4,500 ika (fish), including giant and banded kokopu, bluegill and redfin bullies, eels and freshwater crayfish from a 2.3km stretch of Te Puka Stream, into the upper reaches of the Wainui Stream. This enabled the stream to be diverted to support allow the construction of the motorway.
Other species were also relocated during the construction of the new route. On the slopes of above Te Puka and Horokiri streams, boulder fields were dismantled by hand to locate more than 50 native lizards.
These copper skinks, brown skinks and common geckos were housed in specially constructed ‘apartment cages’ at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve, near Waikanae. They were returned to the area when a new boulder field was built in 2017.
Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira Board Chair, Dr Taku Parai says the Rūnanga were instrumental in working with the Transmission Gully project to manage iwi interests in cultural and environmental mitigation.
“We have been involved from the outset of the project and have, where possible, worked hard to influence decisions around cultural and environmental mitigation. All-in-all, it has been a successful working relationship with the project, and we are pleased to have another opportunity to assert our presence as mana whenua.”
Transmission Gully Project
2021–24 NLTP Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Wellington regional summary
