Key link road back from the dead
It could be New Zealand’s most talked about road and, after at least 60 years of discussion, there is finally progress on the Cross Valley Link.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced the CVL and Petone-Grenada road are on a list of 15 roads being treated as a priority by the coalition Government.
The Government is also expected to announce its fast-track consenting bill in Wellington today, where a second Mt Victoria tunnel has been a hotly debated topic for years but never got off the ground.
Before the election, National signalled it would start construction on a second tunnel in its first term by designating it a major infrastructure priority, which would fasttrack the usual consenting process.
Hutt South MP Chris Bishop, now the infrastructure minister, campaigned on the promise to build both the Cross Valley Link and Petone-Grenada road.
It was “fantastic news for the Hutt Valley that both roads had been named as roads of national significance”, Bishop said.
“These are critical projects for the Hutt Valley and signal the Government is prioritising them for funding.”
As well as increasing resilience, the roads would reduce congestion and open up land for housing, Bishop said.
“I am really pleased. I campaigned hard for years and with a change of government comes a change of approach.”
Lower Hutt mayor Campbell Barry said the CVL’s inclusion in the coalition Government’s draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport was great news for the city.
Also known as the East by West Connector, it will take traffic from Wainuiomata and Seaview to State Highway 2 and on to the Petone-Grenada road. In doing so, it will reduce traffic on the Petone Esplanade and Jackson St.
The first known references to the road were in the 1960s. In the years since, the CVL has been talked about endlessly without any significant progress.
Hutt City Council currently lists it in planning documents with a cost of $188 million, but Barry said a lot more work was required to find the actual cost.
He was keen to meet with the transport minister to discuss progressing the project as quickly as possible.
National is classifying it as a road of national importance, which means the cost will fall on the Government and not Lower Hutt ratepayers.
Taking traffic off the Esplanade and Jackson St would be welcomed by locals and Barry said the council could now begin to look at ways both areas could be improved, once cars started using the new road.
Like the CVL, the Petone-Grenada road has been talked about for years but the project looked doomed when in 2018 (Waka Kotahi) NZTA announced the project would need to be redesigned.
As Labour’s Ginny Andersen, who previously held the Hutt South seat, can testify, promising to build a road does not mean it will be built. Labour announced the RiverLink project in 2021 and three years later, there is still no design and aspects of it are being rescoped to meet the budget.
But she welcomed the CVL being on the list.
“That is great news and I fully support it, 100%. The sooner it gets built the better.”
She was, however, both sceptical and critical when it about the Petone-Grenada road, as engineers had said its steepness meant it would be difficult to build
“It is unrealistic to promise such a potentially expensive road without first doing a business case. I am very interested to know what the cost will be ... National has a responsibility to taxpayers to show how much it will cost.”
National campaigned on the promise of not increasing taxes and Andersen said it was now planning to fund roads by increasing the petrol tax and cost of licensing by 50% over the next two years.
“As well as increasing resilience, the roads would reduce congestion and open up land for housing”
Hutt South MP Chris Bishop
Bishop, however, was “confident” that by listing it as a road of national significance, the Government regarded the road as a priority.
It remains unclear how much the Petone-Grenada road would cost. National campaigned on the basis that it would cost $1.8 billion, using a figure from 2018.
By including 15 roading projects in the plan, Brown said the Government was signalling support for economic growth and regional development across New Zealand.
“Investments in these essential corridors will make it easier for New Zealanders to get where they need to go, create a more productive and resilient transport network, drive economic growth, and unlock land for thousands of new houses.”
Brown said roads of national importance would be funded by a range of options, including tolls and public-private partnerships.