Canty hails Govt road fund pledge

BY KEITH LYNCH

Canterbury transport authorities believe they will save hundreds of millions of dollars after Government confirmation it will fund Christchurch's motorway projects.

The Southern Motorway, the Northern Arterial, and the Western Bypass near Christchurch International Airport have been designated "roads of national significance" as the Government moves to speed up work on seven major routes nationwide. The cost of the three projects is estimated to be from $650 million to $800m.

The Government decision means resource consent may be fast-tracked and the selected routes built in the next decade.

Canterbury Regional Transport Committee chairwoman Jo Kane said the decision was significant for Christchurch.

Canterbury has a $184m funding gap in its 10-year road plan.

However, with the Government commitment to pay for the motorways, millions of dollars of local authority money would be freed up, Kane said.

"These roads are now going to be assessed as nationally significant roads, and will get 100 per cent funding from Government.

"We have a significant funding shortfall, but this announcement releases a significant amount of our regional funding.

"We were going to put $176m into the Southern Motorway project. This is freed up and we may be able to divert it elsewhere."

Transport Minister Steven Joyce had told the New Zealand Transport Authority that the seven roads were a priority.

The new policy means that over 10 years, $10.7 billion will be available for state highways, rather than $6.2b under the previous government.

"We've asked the agency to substantially advance work on these roads over the next 10 years," Joyce said yesterday.

It was possible the Christchurch motorways could be fast-tracked through the planning process or that the routes could be "called in" and the consents process accelerated under changes to the Resource Management Act, the minister said.

This would mean the consent process would have to be completed in nine months.

Work on the Southern Motorway project was well advanced, but the Northern Arterial route linking Christchurch's Northern Motorway to the central city and unclogging congested Marshland and Main North roads had been languishing.

The Western Bypass route would change Johns and Russley roads to four lanes, including a flyover at the Memorial Ave airport roundabout.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker welcomed Christchurch's inclusion in the minister's announcement, saying it was up to the city to accommodate the new motorways.

"This is the best news our city and our province can get in terms of announcement around major road upgrades," he said.

"They are critical for the city and decades overdue. Central government will put up all the dosh and we need to work on what projects we need to put around them."

However, Labour transport spokesman Darren Hughes questioned where the Government would find the extra funding.

"It is hard to know what this non-announcement is about.

"It is a rehashing of a collection of roads we've all heard of with no extra funding or no indication about how this speeds up the building of these roads."

He said the announcement was an effort to divert attention from the "muddle National is creating in Auckland transport".

TOP PRIORITIES

The seven roading projects of national significance are:Puhoi to Wellsford State Highway 1 Completion of the Auckland Western Ring Route Victoria Park, Auckland, bottleneck SH1 Waikato Expressway SH1 Tauranga Eastern Corridor SH2 Levin to Wellington SH1 Christchurch motorway projects.

- © Fairfax NZ News