No toll for Transmission Gully, New Zealand Transport Agency announces

Thursday, 29 August 2019

NZTA rejects a toll for $850m road, saying it could discourage drivers.

Motorists won't have to pay to drive the brand new fast-road to Wellington.

The New Zealand Transport agency announced on Thursday there would be no toll for motorists to drive the 27 kilometre motorway, expected to open in 2020.

Transport Agency Director Emma Speight said an assessment showed a toll would likely see more drivers avoid the road in favour of the current coastal State Highway 1.

A toll could push motorists onto the existing State Highway 1, the NZTA says

'That would compromise the safety, environmental and access benefits which the new road will deliver to drivers as well as for communities along the coastal route.'

The $850m Transmission Gully project is unlikely to open on time

* The case for tolling Transmission Gully does not add up

* Transmission Gully motorway looks likely to be user-pays after Labour shifts gears on tolling**

The announcement has cleared up a long-running question over whether tolling would be applied to the $850 million, four-lane road that runs between the Kāpiti Coast and Wellington.

In 2014, the then-Transport Minister Simon Bridges said a toll was not being 'actively considered' but last year Stuff revealed the NZTA warned Transport Minister Phil Twyford the motorway could make driving too attractive, and recommended investigating whether a toll should be given the green light.

Twyford later confirmed he supported the investigation, although the Labour Party did not publicly support the idea of a toll when it was in opposition.

Speight said their modelling showing tolling would not ease congestion in the region either, instead of encouraging people to choose other transport modes it would likely encourage people to take their cars on the coast route.

The potential revenue over the lifetime of the toll was 'unlikely' to make a meaningful contribution to the road's cost.

Kāpiti Coast mayor K Gurunathan said the announcement was great news for residents but came with fishhooks for local councils.

With no toll on Transmission Gully the agency didn't need to offer a free alternative route, which meant much of SH1 would be handed over to councils to maintain.

' We don't want that stretch of road … it's vulnerable in terms of sea damage and rocks falling from cliffs. The only way we'll accept it is if NZTA funds 100 per cent of the maintenance costs.'

Porirua City Mayor Mike Tana echoed Gurunathan's concerns about the revocation of the roads but said he was pleased there would be no tolling.

'I'm pleased that our locals don't get impacted by tolling and that our roads will continue to be getting free of that extra traffic going through the middle of Porirua.

'Given we now have an answer about tolling we now have a lot better chance to get some answers about what that revocation will look like and negotiate the best possible outcome for Porirua.'

Road Transport Forum CE Nick Leggett agreed a toll would only have kept traffic on the existing route.

'Moving freight is the lifeblood of our economy and Transmission Gully is part of the puzzle for improving that in the Lower North Island.