Highway Projects Queue Up For New Funding Pie
March 19th, 2009
Six of the largest highway projects, including the Waikato Expressway, Christchurch Southern Motorway, State Highway 1 from Puhoi to Wellsford and Auckland’s Victoria Park extension, will jostle for funding under the Govt’s increased budget for transport infrastructure. Transport Minister, Steven Joyce, says this week’s announcements are intended to “send a strong signal” to construction firms and the NZTA on the scope of highway funding over the next three years A further announcement will be made on the most-favoured projects, highways of national significance. State Highway construction funding rises to $10.7bn over 10 years from the $6.6bn target under Labour. Further negotiations will be needed on a case-by-case basis for major projects and whether they are suitable for public-private partnerships and toll roads. Joyce says there are potentially three major candidates for tolling, including the route north of Puhoi, which would be an extension of the existing toll road. “I don’t think there are dramatic opportunities” for tolls roads.
Inefficiency risk. Joyce says the Govt is pulling back from Labour’s drive to promote public transport because there’s a risk of “huge inefficiencies” if highway funding is scaled back to pay for other transport modes. Outside of Auckland and Wellington, most people don’t have access to viable public transport which is why a multi-modal approach will only work in the two main centres. Joyce still has to make a call on the two options for Wellington’s northern corridor and says neither is an easy call. “You’ve got a coastal highway which runs along below a cliff, and there’s all sorts of environmental and safety concerns around that. On the other hand you’ve got a potential Transmission Gully which will have an 8% gradient – the same steepness as Ngauranga Gorge, for twice as long.”
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