Roads of National Significance backdown - just six have guaranteed construction dates
Thursday, 9 July 2026
Just six of the Government’s Roads of National Significance have definite plans to start construction, with the two major Wellington projects being pushed out to the distant future.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop released a long-awaited plan for how the Government would sequence the country’s list of desired transport projects in Auckland this morning, with major changes on what National campaigned on in 2023.
Bishop has been preparing the ground for some kind of backdown on Roads of National Significance projects for some time, warning that New Zealand had nowhere near enough money from fuel taxes for the wider programme.
The list includes three categories for the projects: phase one is under construction, phase two preparing for construction and route protection and phase three “continuing more slowly”.
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The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) projects that were in phase one are Takitimu North Link Stage 1, Ōtaki to North of Levin, Hawke’s Bay Expressway, Northland Corridor – Warkworth to Te Hana, SH1 Cambridge to Piarere and SH29 Tauriko (Ōmanawa Bridge).
The $2.9 billion to $3.8b SH1 Wellington Improvements project which included adding a second Mount Victoria Tunnel, are in phase two but have no implementation date.
The capital’s other big project - the $2.1b to 2.7b Petone to Grenada Link Road and Cross Valley Link- was also near the bottom.
Bishop said the pipeline showed why a phased approach for the RoNS was important.
'As I've said many times, not all projects can start immediately. It takes time to get projects ready for construction, with route protection (designations and consenting), detailed design, and property acquisition all needing to be completed before main construction works can begin.”
Bishop said the Government had always seen the roads and public transport projects as part of a multi-year pipeline to drive jobs and growth around the country.
“Today's pipeline release reflects that.”
National’s original promise ‘very ambitious’
Following the announcement Bishop said the promises made by National on its RoNS programme at the last election were “very ambitious … and you know the world has changed quite a bit since 2023 as well”.
Bishop then pointed to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the Iran War.
“That has materially changed the circumstances and changed the economic situations.”
He claimed the Government had met its commitments on the Wellington improvements project to get shovels in the ground before the next election due to geo-technical work having taken place - however the project had no start date.
On Thursday morning The Post reported Government documents showed the State Highway 1 Wellington improvements project could be ranked near the bottom of the list.
The Petone to Grenada Link Road and Cross Valley Link was also near the bottom.
The RoNS are set to cost $56b, with $49b of that yet to be funded, the documents show.
In response to the Infrastructure Commission’s national plan, the Government last month noted the importance of making sure there was detailed data on projects to ensure they were counted in the national infrastructure pipeline.
That included all Government agencies registering their projects in the pipeline.
Opposition says plan is more pipe dream than pipeline
Both Labour and the Green Party said the announcement showed a large amount of National’s transport plan was not funded.
Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said the Government had no clear way to fund its projects.
“After years of pressure to front up on how it would pay for its roading wish list, the Government has released less a pipeline and more a pipe dream.”
Genter said putting projects in its third phase was an admission the Government’s numbers did not stack up.
Labour’s transport spokesperson, Tangi Utikere, said that the announcement was a wishlist not a transport plan.
“National promised communities these projects would be delivered. Now it's quietly admitting many have no funding to get built.
“They over-promised, under-budgeted and are now walking back the certainty they sold at the election.”