Highway bypass bill at $280m
Inflation and land purchases have pushed the cost of building the Mt Messenger bypass to $280 million – a 40 per cent increase since the project was first announced in 2016.
Construction of the planned 5.2-kilometre route on State Highway 3, north of New Plymouth, was initially costed at $200m.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency regional relationships director Emma Speight said the increase was due to inflation and land purchases. This includes a 120-hectare land swap, worth $1.2m, and a $7.7m cultural reparation for Nga¯ ti Tama iwi, which has rights to the land.
There were also costs for pest control management of 3650ha of native bush next to the project, and replanting and restoring 32ha of wetland, native forest and riparian margins. Only a small amount had been spent on court hearings, Speight said.
Work was set to begin in the summer of 2019/20 but has been bogged down in resource consent hearings, and appeals to the Environment Court and High Court.
A small group – Poutama Kaitiaki Charitable Trust, and farmers Tony and Debbie Pascoe
– have mounted successive appeals to stop the project.
They are appealing the Environment Court’s final decision in April 2021 to approve the road and a High Court decision in 2020 which did not recognise the trust as kaitiaki (guardian) of the land. They are also appealing a recent High Court decision to make them pay court costs of $36,000.
Recently the group put forward an alternative route which would bypass the farm and avoid destroying 18ha of wetlands and more than 40ha of native forest, home to numerous species of native birds and bats.
Speight said the group’s option was considered among 24 investigated by NZTA in 2016. It was not selected because it did not meet the safety standard for a modern highway, and included stabilising a large landslide, which would have added $184m to the cost of the project.
Speight said that while the group’s option avoided Mangape¯peke Valley flats close to the Pascoes’ farm, it affected a tributary of the Tongapo¯rutu River, and nearby flood plains.
‘‘The areas of high value vegetation that could not be avoided by the selected route are limited to 16 significant native trees, regrowth forest and the edges of grazed flats in the Mangape¯ peke
Valley,’’ Speight said. The selected route, approved by the Environment Court in April, included building a viaduct to avoid the Mimi wetland.
Proposed mitigation planting and removal of farm livestock from the upper Mangape¯peke Valley would improve the ecological condition of the valley.
A three-month trial to test settlement loads will begin on the southern side of Mt Messenger this week.
The testing will work out how much weight embankment foundations will hold, and how long it will take to compress and remove water and stabilise the ground.