The roads to recovery
KEY ROADING PROJECTS, OVERLOOKED IN THE Government’s $12billion infrastructure spendup announced in January, need to be reinstated as part of the COVID-19 economic recovery package.
The Road Transport Forum says that the post-lockdown effort to get the country back up and running should include quickly scheduling the mothballed Petone-Grenada Link project in Wellington, Auckland’s EastWest Link (between Onehunga and Mt Wellington) and Selwyn to Timaru highway updates.
In response to a Government statement (on April 1) that it has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that could begin as soon as the construction industry returns to normal, the RTF has begun pushing for the inclusion of the three badly-needed roading projects.
Forum chief executive Nick Leggett says further investment in roads will be necessary “if we are going to build up our economy as quickly as possible – and these roads were missed out of the NZ Upgrade Programme.
“Exports and imports need to keep moving to ensure people are employed, when it looks like we will be unlikely to rely on tourism and foreign students to boost our economy for some time.
“There has been some talk of local manufacturing, but that will take years to establish – and, even then, the NZ market is too small to make it viable, so people would have to be manufacturing for export as well as domestic supply.
“With Transmission Gully nearing completion in the Wellington region, the Petone-Grenada link is a vital part of its success – linking freight on State Highway 1 with the regional industrial centre in the Hutt Valley. This was