We suck at road building; maybe Chinese are better

ONew Zealand is now the champion of ad-hoc decisions and cheap corner-cutting.

nce upon a time, New Zealand was an industrious nation – we prided ourselves on rolling up our sleeves and getting things done.

But it’s becoming painfully obvious that building roads to ease chronic congestion is just too hard to get right.

So maybe we should pounce on an offer from the Chinese to take over big infrastructure projects.

Case in point: the new $630 million Kapiti expressway north of Wellington, which is now being blamed by some motorists for doubling the amount of time it takes to get into the city.

Apparently, the expressway will be more effective when it links up with the not-yet-finished Transmission Gully. It won’t be ready for 1000 more days.

The powers that be thought it a good idea to build these roadways separately. So until the Lego pieces join up, motorists remain worse off. I call that poor planning and even worse execution.

When did this country become so useless at building roads? These days we couldn’t plan our way out of a paper bag. And don’t get me started on the Basin Reserve flyover debacle in Wellington – traffic is choking the life out of such a brilliant city.

Christchurch is a creeping nightmare, too – roads have disappeared and peak traffic is also getting worse – down there motorists spent 3 per cent more time on the roads last year than the year before. New Zealand is now the champion of ad-hoc decisions and cheap cornercutting. No wonder the latest TomTom congestion survey shows Wellington as the worst in the country for morning congestion. And Aucklanders now spend on average 10 hours a week in their car. That turns a five-day working week into six. We have failed to plan and build properly.

When you bring 72,000 extra migrants into New Zealand every year, it’ll cause chaos for housing, roads and schools if we don’t plan and spend money at the same time. We’ve done neither and we’ve been let down. Too slow, too piecemeal, too tight, no creativity – it’s our national shame.

We should have slapped an infrastructure tax on every migrant coming into the county over the past decade so we could have fast-tracked a building programme. We missed a golden opportunity to raise billions of dollars. Auckland is a bloody mess – a downright shambles.

Yes, the Government will claim it’s spending more than ever - but the reality is this country’s main centres risk grinding to a halt. Those in charge should be embarrassed. These days in order to have a family outing in Auckland you need to plan it like a military operation. Go out more than once a day in your car at the weekend and you’re asking for trouble. Bring back carless days, seriously.

Let’s underwrite public transport and make it free, or much cheaper. The trains are starting to work well in Auckland, let’s promote them further. But until then, we need to build and build quickly. Tax cuts anyone? Pfffft. There’s so much else to do first.

The Government has been coy and Northland authorities a bit shy, but I applaud this secret plan for the Chinese to fund and help build highways and railway lines in the north. So why all the secrecy and playing dumb about the deal? Prime Minister Bill English says he doesn’t know much. For a start I don’t believe that, and secondly, if he doesn’t know what the Chinese are up to in New Zealand, he should. Shout about it from the rooftops, celebrate it, it’s called investment and that’s been sadly lacking. Just don’t let China use any of their C-grade steel.

If it means something big happens then let’s get on with it. It should mean jobs for Kiwis and if we have to toll the roads, so be it. It’s better than paying for it and getting nothing.

Complete Transmission Gully, start building a second harbour crossing in Auckland with a rail link. Replace the goat tracks in Northland. Our major motorways have become car parks. Let’s fix it, it doesn’t matter who does it.

It’s called pragmatism - once one of our greatest trait as New Zealanders. Do what it takes. Can we fix it?

Yes we can, using everyone and anyone to get it done.