UPGRADE PROGRAMME GETS A DOWNGRADE UNDER LABOUR

THE GOVERNMENT’S FLAGSHIP $8.7 BILLION NEW ZEALAND Upgrade Programme (NZUP) is in disarray and in danger of significant time delays and budget blowout.

NZUP is supposed to be a way to quickly and efficiently deliver key transport infrastructure projects around the country through Crown funding, but under Labour it is delivering less over a longer timeframe.

Kiwis desperately need these projects, like the Otaki to Levin Highway or the Mill Road Upgrade in Auckland, to keep moving, get goods to market, and connect our communities. Yet many of these projects are now in trouble.

Ten NZUP projects have been rated red by NZTA due to significant cost pressures and being in serious jeopardy of not being delivered on time or within budget. Six other projects are trending towards cost blowouts and time delays. Only two are set to be delivered on time and within budget.

Labour will point to the war in Ukraine and COVID, but that’s not the full picture. The reality is that Labour’s misplaced priorities in transport has also contributed to this failure to deliver projects in a timely and cost efficient manner.

When National left Government in 2017, we also left a pipeline of infrastructure projects ready to go, including in the NZUP. But then Labour went on a cancellation spree and axed a bunch of projects, like Mill Road and the Whangarei to Port Marsden Highway. They then backtracked on some of them and rescoped Mill Road from four lanes to safety improvements. If there wasn’t an endless merry-go-round of cancellations and re-announcements, the Upgrade Programme would be in much better shape today.

The Minister of Transport, Michael Wood, also has misplaced priorities in wasting loads of money on his pet projects. After announcing a $785 million stand-alone cycle bridge over

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/governments87-billion-transport-projects-flash-red-one-year-after-firstbudget-blowout/tihm5v7gfrnyjnlk6f66rbvd2a/

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/governments-785million-auckland-harbour-cycle-bridge-vast-majorityopposed-poll-shows/rlltbijgghi6v36xe3b6r7waai/

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/governments-aucklandlight-rail-project-could-cost-29-billion-treasury-paperssay/6tcv7kgnkzuln75jvwj4bkuxtq/