Big Waikato roading projects formally on Government priority list

Tuesday, 5 March 2024

Roading plans were a topic of interest when three local National MPs fronted for a Grow Waikato grilling on Monday night. From left are MC Mark Bunting, Tama Potaka, Ryan Hamilton and Louise Upston.

The Cambridge-Piarere expressway and the Southern Links roading project are now formally on the Government’s priority list - but funding and timing remain uncertain.

Southern Links is a 32km transport network to the south of Hamilton, including 21km of state highways and 11km of local arterial roads.

In a first for the two projects, they’ve been included in 15 new roads of national significance (RoNS) announced by the Government on Monday, along with the Tauriko west SH29 project near Tauranga.

Luxon and Transport Minister Simeon Brown released the Government's plans for the sector.

“All RoNS will be four-lane, grade-separated highways and all funding, financing and delivery options should be considered to deliver them in stages as quickly as possible,” a statement from Transport Minister Simeon Brown said.

Under the previous Government, the two projects were part of a national upgrade programme but it’s understood no construction funding had been allocated and no formal timings announced.

The announcement of two new regional RoNS had “huge significance” as they will “free up significant blocks in our transport system”, Waikato Chamber of Commerce chief executive Don Good said on Tuesday.

The roading news is of “huge significance” to the region and can free up blocks in the transport system, says Waikato Chamber of Commerce chief executive Don Good.

The Government was sending a clear signal that it sets ambitious goals “and is focused on getting them delivered”.

While funding and timing for the two RoNS weren’t confirmed, Good was confident money - potentially including private capital - would be attracted. The projects could provide long-term payback for investors.

At a chamber-hosted Grow Waikato event on Monday night involving National MPs, Hamilton West MP and minister Tama Potaka said implementing the projects would help create better flows of freight and people “particularly given our space in the Golden Triangle”.

A fellow minister, Taupō’s Louise Upton, acknowledged to the hui that “we need to pay for it”.

Part of meeting extra transport costs was raising vehicle registration charges and other funding mechanisms were needed.

An upgrade to the busy Camridge to Piarere section of SH1 is expected to bring significant safety benefits.

“We have to come up with a number of measures to make sure that we overcome the sort of infrastructure deficit that we’ve got,” Upston said.

Noting fast-tracking of projects generally was due to be part of the coalition’s 100-day plan, Upston said: “Everything is taking so much longer, it’s costing so much more so that the fast-track provisions … become a significant part of the answer.”

Hamilton East MP Ryan Hamilton said of infrastructure investment generally that he didn’t think there would be a quick fix for expanding local government funding sources.

Rates, Crown funding and development contributions had been traditional sources of cash, including for transport.

“We need to explore other options to get things off the ground, whether it’s tolling, congestion charges, value capture,” he said. The latter involved landowners contributing to infrastructure upkeep if they benefit from it.

Overseas investment and private equity were other options, Hamilton said.

Upston, a former Land Information Minister, said: “Overseas investors think New Zealand is closed for business … that’s not sustainable for us.

The aptly named Narrows Bridge on Airport Rd is a key area of concern when it comes to upgrading under the Southern Links programme.

“We have to be really clear and open to overseas investment to make sure that our economy gets back to where it was and that we can grow.

“Otherwise we will struggle”, with the risk of going backwards, Upston said.

The sole Waikato-specific part of the 100-day plan is signing an agreement with Waikato University over a third medical school, something done last month. The school’s focus would include providing more doctors to work in less-populated areas.

Upston said New Zealand had to do better on this front.

“If I look at a hospital like Taupō, closed at the weekend because there’s no doctors, that is third world.

“The further you go out into rural New Zealand it is a massive issue.”

Asked about plans to address the numbers of people living in emergency housing, Upston - whose portfolios include child poverty reduction and social development - said more help for children in such housing was part of the uncompleted 100-day list work.

More detail was expected this week.

Meanwhile, Potaka called emergency housing “a social and moral disaster” and ideally wanted placements to be reduced to zero in Hamilton and Waikato.

“We’re gearing ourselves around to figure out how to do that because Hamilton is the epicentre of emergency housing in this country.”

Hamilton and Rotorua between them had about a quarter to a third of all emergency housing nationally, Potaka said.

There were about 550 children in such placements in Waikato, mostly Hamilton.