The flyover would have carried motorists between the Mt Victoria and Arras tunnels.

Wellington motorists will have to endure the Basin Reserve's daily congestion crunch for a while yet, after those in charge of solving the problem admitted a solution could still be four years away.

The lengthy wait means the capital will be waiting even longer for several other major transport projects, including duplicate Mt Victoria and Terrace tunnels, which are "on hold" until the Basin's traffic woes are sorted.

It has been almost two years since the New Zealand Transport Agency's plans for a $90 million flyover fell over, and transport planners still have not picked up their pens and begun designing an alternative.

1 of 11 NZTA An aerial perspective of how the proposed Basin Reserve flyover would look in central Wellington. 2 of 11 NZTA An artist's impression of what the proposed Basin Reserve flyover would look like from the top of Cambridge Terrace, looking towards the cricket ground. 3 of 11 NZTA What the proposed Basin Reserve flyover would look like from Hania St, looking towards the Mt Victoria Tunnel. 4 of 11 NZTA How the proposed Basin Reserve flyover would look from the southern end of Kent and Cambridge terraces, looking east. 5 of 11 FAIRFAXNZ What the proposed Basin Reserve flyover would look like from the top of Kent Terrace, looking towards Buckle St and the National War Memorial. 6 of 11 NZTA A computer simulation of how the proposed flyover would look from the median between Kent and Cambridge terraces in central Wellington. 7 of 11 NZTA A computer simulation of how the proposed flyover would look from Ellice St. 8 of 11 NZTA A computer simulation of how the proposed flyover would look from level three of Grandstand Apartments on Kent Terrace in central Wellington. 9 of 11 NZTA The proposed new pavilion that would be built at the northern end of the Basin Reserve to block views of the flyover from inside the cricket ground. 10 of 11 NZTA How the proposed new pavilion would look from within the Basin Reserve. 11 of 11 NZTA How the proposed new pavilion would look from within the Basin Reserve.

Jim Bentley, who oversees the group now in charge of transport planning for central Wellington, also revealed to city councillors on Wednesday that the final outcome might not even be a major piece of infrastructure.

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"We're looking at what solutions are required [at the Basin] rather than what road can we build," he said.

NZTA The proposed Basin Reserve flyover would have been completed in 2017 if it had received resource consent. Its replacement is still some years away.

"The goal is not necessarily a capital project."

The Transport Agency"s controversial plan to build a two-lane highway flyover, 20 metres north of the Basin was rejected by an independent board of inquiry in 2014 - a decision that was upheld by the High Court a year later.

Since then, responsibility for a new plan has been transferred to the Ngauranga to Airport Governance Group, which comprises members of the Wellington city and regional councils, as well the agency.

Bentley, the group's independent director, said its focus to date had been consulting with stakeholders and deciding what principles will guide the process down the line.

That phase was expected to wrap up in April, at which point alternative ideas would be called upon from any member of the public who believed they had a good one, he said.

"The programme team has not started looking at scenarios yet. We've got a design workshop in the next couple of weeks and that'll be the first time we get our pens out."

Planning for the flyover dates back as far as 2001.

The agency spent $12.3m on development, consultation and resource consent battles over the years with little to show for it.

Bentley said that, while the flyover plan would not be revisited, the information learned during its development would be used to shape future decisions.

"We're not throwing everything away, we're just saying we need to look at things through a different lens."

When asked by councillor Jo Coughlan how long it might be before any construction began at the Basin, Bentley said a best case scenario was two years, but it would be "most probably longer".

Councillor Andy Foster, who sits on the Ngauranga to Airport Governance Group, said a more realistic guess would be three to four years.

Paul Swain, the regional council's transport portfolio leader, said he understood the wait to solve the Basin conundrum was annoying.

But it was important to find a solution that everyone could live with, so that no more time and money was wasted on court battles, he said.

"There's frustration over when we're going to get an answer. But last time, people didn't like the answer … so we need to engage more effectively this time."

Save The Basin Reserve, which opposed the flyover from the beginning, said it was supportive of genuine public engagement over a solution, whatever that might be.

"We need a genuine consultation process that comes up with a solution for a 21st-century capital city," spokesman Tim Jones said.

"We've seen what happens when transport planners get a single idea in their heads and try to push it through in the face of evidence and community opposition."

The group felt "absolutely no guilt" over what would be a lengthy delay in solving the Basin's congestion problems. "We felt we did the city a valuable service in preventing what was very clearly a flawed plan from going ahead."