Department of Conservation opposes Manawatū-Hawke's Bay highway

Thursday, 4 April 2019

Commissioners are hearing submissions on a highway that would replace State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge.

The Department of Conservation opposes the construction of a new highway between Manawatū and Hawke's Bay, saying information about the environmental effects of the road is lacking.

The department says the need to retain wetlands, fauna and other indigenous features outweighs the economic and social benefits of the road, and solutions proposed by the New Zealand Transport Agency are not detailed enough.

A commissioners' hearing into a new State Highway 3 between Ashhurst and Woodville is nearly done, with the department's submission on Thursday one of the last.

The agency wants to build a four-lane highway across the Ruahine Range to replace SH3 through the Manawatū Gorge.

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The gorge road was closed in April 2017 due to landslips and a moving hillside.

The department's legal counsel Sarah Ongley told the hearing on Thursday there were many uncertainties in the agency's plans, largely due to the lack of information available.

Because of that, it was hard for the department to say exactly how the environment would be affected, she said.

Commissioner Rob van Voorthuysen asked Ongley if the department thought the negative effects on biodiveristy, or the uncertainty about such effects, outweighed the economic, health and wellbeing benefits of the highway.

She gave a long reply, but, when pressed by van Voorthuysen, confirmed that was the department's position.

Ecologist Dr Timothy Martin said 32 hectares of habitat could be lost if the road was built, with the roading corridor going across indigenous forests and wetlands, but a lack of information from the agency made it impossible to be sure.

There had already been a lot of habitat loss in the area, which is close to a department reserve.

The agency had not done detailed monitoring work for invertebrates, despite the likelihood native insects and lizards, as well as at-risk moths, lived in the area, he said.

'Surveys need to be done.'

Although the agency proposed making sure there would be a net gain in environmental quality – any lost habitat would be replaced with larger habitats in other areas – that was hard to quantify, he said.

Creating a new wetland of the same size in a vastly different area may not create an equilibrium and could actually be a negative.

'You need a high degree of certainty about the habitat being lost and the location and condition of the restoration site.

'But at the moment, there are significant information gaps.'

Instead of having conditions requiring a net gain, there should be conditions requiring the agency to do everything possible to keep the already established habitats, he said.

The hearing is scheduled to finish on Friday.