Push for ‘low cost, value for money’ sees $330m cut from proposed safety budget
Friday, 21 June 2024
More than $330m in proposed funding for safety improvements for Canterbury’s state highways has been cut from the region’s land transport plan, as part of the Government’s drive for “lower cost, value for money” safety improvements.
The massive cut - from a proposed $400m budget over 10 years to $67.5m - is part of a “refocused” speed and infrastructure programme to align with the draft government policy statement on land transport (GPS), which mandates “value for money, lower cost interventions targeting high risk parts of the network”, said NZTAs director regional relationships James Caygill.
“Value for Money” is one of the GPS’s four strategic priorities, which specifies reviewing road safety investment to ensure “efficient changes, which make improvements to the roading network at the lowest cost”, according to the draft document, released in March.
The cut is part of more than a billion dollars of proposed spending retrospectively removed from the 2024-34 Canterbury Regional Land Transport Plan, which was due to come into effect in days.
Other changes include:
Cutting $800m for proposed implementation funding of Greater Christchurch mass rapid transit.
A $90m decrease for SH1 Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass (one of only two South Island Roads of National Significance).
Adding $18m towards the Wheels to Wings cycleway and $15m towards Oram Ave corridor improvements in New Brighton.
The variations to the plan, requested by NZTA and the Christchurch City Council, were approved by the Canterbury Land Transport Committee in May, and by Environment Canterbury this week.
ECan councillor Deon Swiggs was the only councillor to vote against the changes, saying he “fundamentally disagreed” with cuts to the state highway safety budget.
ECan staff recommended the council vote for the changes, which they said were alterations to timing, reallocations of funding, or corrections to formula errors, and told the council the changes would be made regardless of their vote.
ECan’s principal strategy advisor Clare Pattison said the $332m reduction in proposed safety improvements was a result of “updated” solutions that “were now costing less”, but still targeted the same high-risk locations.
An NZTA spokesperson pointed to changes to the SH1 Timaru to St Andrews safety improvement project as an example of “low cost” safety solutions.
There had been five fatal and 16 serious crashes on the 12.5km stretch of highway in the past decade, and a combination of side and median barriers was proposed in 2022 as part of a $30m safety upgrade.
However, in April, the project was re-scoped to “respond[s] to government priorities” and community concerns about passing farming vehicles in an emergency.
As part of the newly scoped project, the flexible median barriers were replaced with painted wide centrelines.
International research shows roads fitted with median and side barriers reduce deaths by 85-90%, while roads with median barriers alone typically achieve a reduction in death and serious injury of around 65%.
Painted wide centre lines reduce the risk of death and serious injury from crashes by 35%, according to the NZTA.
The $90m decrease for the SH1 Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass was a “restructure of the work programme” to align with the GPS, and reflected “a reallocation of cost”, not a deduction, Pattison said.
NZTA’s Caygill also said the revised amount for the Belfast Motorway and Woodend Bypass “simply reflect[s] an update”, not “a change in scope”.
Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon said he understood the reduced budget related to an exercise by NZTA to “better understand and determine the total costs associated with delivering this project”.
“What’s important to our residents is that safety improvements along this stretch of road, and building of the Woodend Bypass, go ahead as both are desperately needed as the community here grows,” Gordon said.