NZ Roads: Route work starts on Wellsford – Puhoi highway
March 24th, 2010
Work is expected to start soon on community consultations on the proposed Puhoi Wellsford motorway extension. This follows NZ Transport Agency’s awarding a $12m contract for route investigation on a proposed 38km highway, to be conducted by engineering and environmental specialists Sinclair Knight Mertz. It is expected to take 15 months. However, NZTA is expecting a preferred route to be indentified before the middle of the year.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce remains confident the route will be complete within 10 years to Warkworth but it will be more difficult to finish the expressway to Wellsford in the same time frame. “However, that remains the Transport Agency’s goal.” The Transport Agency has earmarked almost $2.2bn for the project in its latest 10-year programme, however a more recent cost forecast has brought that back to an estimated $1.53bn to $2.04bn.
Opponents such as the Auckland Regional Council and Green Party say the project is a poor use of resources and the economics do not stack up. However, NZTA claims the calculations as to the cost-benefits ratio used by opponents are inaccurate and the actual cost benefit ratio is almost twice what is claimed by opponents of the highway.
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