Bypass ready to roll

3.5km route brought bureaucratic battle

CAMERON BURNELL/Taranaki Daily News

SUCCESS AT LAST: Road Transport Association spokesman Tom Cloke walks along the Bell Block Bypass, which will be officially opened today.

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Taranaki's latest major roading project will be officially opened today, ending decades of battling with bureaucracy to get it done.

The project is the $21 million Bell Block Bypass, which Transport Minister Steven Joyce will open at 10.30am, after it took three years to build.

And, fittingly, the first vehicle to drive along the bypass will be a heavy truck – illustrating the strong part the road transport industry has played in getting the big project under way.

The Road Transport Association will use today's opening to remind Mr Joyce there are several other Taranaki roading improvements that are vital to the region's economic progress.

"We'll be taking the opportunity to talk to Mr Joyce about several other projects that are dear to our hearts," said RTA spokesman Tom Cloke.

"These include what needs to be done to our highway link to the north, and the urgent need to improve the highway access into New Plymouth and Port Taranaki. It's crucial that these get done."

The 3.5km bypass, which begins at the top of the Waiwhakaiho hill, will carry traffic to the south of Bell Block township before joining up with SH3 again west of the airport turnoff, has been a long time coming.

The project has been on the books since at least 1968 when the then New Plymouth City Council developed a master transport plan designed to move traffic out of the city's business district. Properties even began to be compulsorily acquired from 1986 to make way for the bypass route.

But in 2004 when Government roading agency Transit sent a $21.2 million plan to funding body Land Transport New Zealand, it was turned down on the grounds that rising costs meant it no longer met the required benefit-cost ratio.

This led more than 50 Taranaki local government and business representatives to demand that the project be reinstated. The pressure succeeded – and the bypass project was rescheduled.

Mr Cloke said today's opening would mark the end of a long, hard battle.

"But we just had to keep working for it. We needed to convince the Government of how important that route is to Taranaki's industry and economy."

The district council's general manager of community assets, Anthony Wilson, said the drawn-out campaign to get the bypass built has been frustrating.

"The biggest frustration has been that this project has had to be prioritised along with other highway projects – and there always seems to have been something more important," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News