Highway plans leave many questions unanswered
Hopes for a four-laned route dashed in future of Northland roads announcement
When the New Zealand Transport Agency announced its plans for the future of Northland’s state highways last week, we weren’t expecting miracles.
The Government had already made it clear that building large-scale highways wasn’t part of its agenda – and most of us recognised that we weren’t going to get the Transport Agency sign up to a four-lane highway all the way south to Wellsford, despite it being classified a nationally significant route.
However, we were still hopeful that we’d see a firm commitment to building at least some of that highway, in particular the highvolume, high-risk section between Whanga¯rei and Port Marsden Highway (SH15).
Sadly, that’s not what we got. The Transport Agency announced its intention to designate land for a new highway between Whanga¯rei and SH15, but it made no commitment to a start date. All we were told was that “construction timing and the form of the new route will depend on growth and funding priorities across the rest of the country”.
What’s more, we learned that the new road would only come with two lanes, not the four that had been anticipated. Only a year or so ago, the Transport Agency’s intention was to begin construction on a new Whanga¯rei to Port Marsden highway in 2019, with completion by 2024-26. Three of the four options put in front of the public involved new four-lane highways, and the community was right behind it.
So the announcement was a kick in the guts for Northland, and will have done nothing to build public trust in transport planning for our region.
It’s left the AA Northland District Council and other stakeholders with a whole lot of unanswered questions.
Over the past 10 years, 19 people have died on the stretch of highway between Whanga¯rei and Ruaka¯ka¯, and there were another 51 serious injuries.
The Transport Agency plans a number of interim safety upgrades on the existing highway – and this is great – but no amount of safety patching will get the road up to a standard of safety that a new road would deliver.
We are left asking: How many deaths and serious injuries would delaying Whanga¯rei to Port Marsden Highway cost us in the years ahead? If safety is the Government’s numberone transport priority, it is hard to see how the decision could be justified.
Traffic volumes on this stretch of highway have been growing at 5pc per annum in recent years (and even more for freight). How long before the capacity of the current highway is maxed out, disrupting travel times and stifling the productivity of our port? 1 There are 46 states and four Commonwealths in the United States — name any two of the Commonwealths.
2 How does one address a cardinal? 3 Beginning with the letter M, name
the national dance of Poland?
4 What duo recorded the song I
Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)?
5 Who won the 1973 NZ Sportsman of the Year award, due to performances mainly overseas? Q: How do vampires start their letters?
A: “Tomb it may concern . . .’’ 1620: The passengers and crew of the Mayflower sighted Cape Cod in the US.
1918: It was announced that Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.
1938: Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewishowned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as “Kristallnacht.”
1961: US Air Force Maj. Robert M. White became the first pilot to fly an X-15 rocket plane at six times the speed of sound.
1961: The Beatles’ future manager, Brian Epstein, first saw the group perform at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.
1965: The great Northeast blackout began as a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours left 30 million people in seven US states and part of Canada without electricity.
1967: A Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.
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