Key roading projects in jeopardy

Little cash available for infrastructure, Waka Kotahi NZ warns local councils

Ahalf-a-billion-dollar pothole in road funding has been patched but key projects remain in jeopardy. Money is especially scarce for state highway improvements, public transport and the Government's flagship safety strategy Road to Zero.

This has come at a crucial time when the country's transport plans for the next three years are being drawn up, and as Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency tries to find new revenue sources amid a funding review.

Western Bay of Plenty mayor

Garry Webber spent yesterday morning in a meeting of the district's roading committee exasperated: “Our frustrations are at bursting point.

“We just keep on getting kicked to the back of the queue.” The rural Western Bay town of Katikati has fought for 30 years for a bypass to get big trucks off the main road that does dangerous double duty as the state highway link to the Port of Tauranga.

“Like all things, that will go into the concrete mixer, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it comes out the back end, ‘Sorry, hear your frustrations, but there is no money',” Webber said.

Council regional transport committees around the country are working on their own plans to add to NZTA's national plan.

But the agency, its revenues hit by Covid, has warned there is “very limited funding” and “very little room”.

It expects to spend more on highway and local road maintenance, and on public transport services, rather than infrastructure.

Stuart Crosby, head of Local Government New Zealand, says many projects will not “get over the line”.

In February, NZTA warned councils it would start the three-year period $250 million in the red and faced a $500m hole just meeting bare minimum demands.

The $500m hole now appears to have been plugged from NZTA revenues rising to $13.5 billion from $13b.

“Overall, transport investment today is at record levels,” Transport Minister Michael Wood said. “However, there are always more possible projects than it is possible to fund.”

The “record high” of $21b is bolstered by $7b of Covid rescue money focused on a few select transport projects, mostly in Auckland and Wellington, but including a new stretch of state highway south of Katikati.

South Island councils have to compete for the regular fund away from the Covid billions.

“North Island roads do look in a better state generally than ours,” Tasman's deputy mayor, Stuart Bryant, said. He chairs the South's overarching regional transport committee.

“This is more frustration coming to us from NZTA.

“No one really wants more of the same. Everyone's got projects that they've been waiting some time for now.”

In the national transport programme for the last three years 2018-21, project targets were regularly missed, with, ironically, budgets regularly underspent, sometimes because a road-builder could not be found.

Councils have until June to submit their plans, with NZTA telling them it was “critical” they sharpen their pencils.

The agency told RNZ that, on average, signs were that councils were asking for a fifth more money than they got in the last three-year period, with some asking for up to 70 per cent more.

Waka Kotahi is aiming to increase transport investment 15 per cent, including the $7b of Covid projects. It has been looking for months for new sources of revenue, with help from the Transport Ministry and Treasury.