The government has asked the Infrastructure Commission to oversee an urgent and wide-ranging review into the Transmission Gully project, Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones have announced.

Twyford says construction has been plagued with delays and increased costs. 

“It appears the agreement signed up to by the former government was loose and failed to protect taxpayers‘ money. It seems to have been rushed through without the necessary due diligence being carried out.

“Wellingtonians and taxpayers deserve to know exactly what has happened. We want to make sure future governments aren‘t left in the same predicament our government has been.

“While the NZ Transport Agency‘s settlement has given everyone certainty to the cost and completion date, it‘s simply not good enough that this project has repeatedly had delays and increased costs,” Twyford said.

Jones said the review was important to learn the lessons for future projects.

“Both government and the private sector need to have the confidence to carry out large complex infrastructure projects together. We can‘t have problems with Transmission Gully putting us off from using innovative procurement models to tackle our infrastructure deficit.

“Given the high potential for conflicts of interest in the New Zealand market, the Infrastructure Commission will get an independent international expert to lead the review. The review will kick off once they have been hired and take until mid-2021,” Jones said.