Candidates come up with bridge woes answer

A public-private partnership is being held up as the solution to New Plymouth's Waiwhakaiho Bridge traffic issues.

Two mayoral candidates, John Rae and Maurice Betts, are proposing a public-private partnership [PPP] between the New Plymouth District Council and thegovernment to have the bridge four-laned as soon as possible.

Mr Rae said the bridge is his number one election priority and said he had discussed a PPP with Transport Minister Steven Joyce and had been told it could be considered.

He said last week's accident where a crash on the bridge caused traffic to back up several kilometres on both sides illustrated the problem.

"That could've been a major catastrophe," he said. "Your brother, father, sister, son or grandfather could have died lacking urgent medical attention if an ambulance couldn't get through."

He said that by using a PPP he would have the bridge four-laned within three years and, in the meantime, he wanted to find a place where a fire appliance and an ambulance could be stationed in Bell Block from Monday to Friday in case of an emergency.

Mr Betts has also long been in favour of a PPP solution, first raising the idea in May when he asked TIML to look into the possibility of investing in a PPP.

Mr Betts said using a PPP could bring the project forward 20 years.

"The Waiwhakaiho roading and bridge project is not mentioned for funding in the National Infrastructure Plan issued by Government," he said. "We already have outside funding to complete the conceptual plans for this.

"There is no guarantee that the Government will fund the works."

That's where the similarities end however. Mr Rae and Mr Betts have different ideas about how a PPP solution would work and how it would be funded.

Mr Betts' idea is to fund it with TIML money.

"This could produce an internal rate of return of 11 per cent per annum over the life of the project investment due to the way PPPs are calculated by the Government," he said. "The return is also paid by Government so the cashflow is assured. A very safe investment indeed."

But Mr Rae disagrees and says the council should borrow the money to pay for the PPP. "If we use that capital to invest in a joint venture that's capital we don't have to invest to make a return."

- © Fairfax NZ News