Toll in the offing for new piece of Waikato Expressway
Friday, 14 February 2025
The latest piece of the Waikato Expressway could be a toll road.
New Zealand Transport Agency has confirmed it will assess whether the 16km, four laned stretch from the outskirts of Cambridge to the new SH1/SH29 roundabout at Piarere would be suitable for charging.
If the assessment indicates that a toll is suitable it will undergo public consultation this year, with the Minister of Transport to make a final decision.
The revelation of comes as motorists learn what they can expect once it’s built.
A concept video by New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) shows off the suggested Waikato Expressway extension - one of the Government's roads of national significance.
The eye in the sky cruise down the proposed extension shows eight lanes of asphalt and three separate roads.
NZTA said the concept visualisation is subject to further changes. There are some elements, such as final landscaping, that are still being designed and aren’t included in the flythrough.
The video shows what will happen to the current SH1 and also how local roads will connect to the expressway.
It reveals a new interchange at Karāpiro Road. And there will be four other bridges, three over existing gullies and an overbridge providing access to a realigned local road at Tunakawa Road.
NZTA Regional Acting Manager of Infrastructure Delivery Darryl Coalter said they lodged Notices of Requirements along with resource consent applications with the Environmental Protection Authority in December 2024, under the Repeal Act.
This provides a fast-track consenting process for some infrastructure projects, including roading, and is quicker than the standard Resource Management Act process.
It’s expected this month the Chief Environment Court Judge will appoint an expert consenting panel to consider the application.
That panel will then invite submissions on the application, expected in March.
Coalter said unlike a traditional RMA process, under the Repeal Act there is a defined list of people and organisations who can make a submission on a substantive application.
Invited people can then lodge submissions – within 20 working days of being invited to do so.
The Panel makes its decision within 60 working days of submissions closing, if no hearing is held. Or within 90 working days if a hearing is held.
NZTA has an indicative time-line in which it’s hoped that by mid-2025 the investigation and tender design will be progressed. And then in a year’s time the contract award for the first phase of construction, with the first lot of physical work to begin late 2026.
That is subject to a number of supporting activities like funding, consents, and archaeological authorities.
In 2013 the case for the expressway to be extended was first identified, and work started on a programme business case that was endorsed in 2015. The NZTA Board supported the recommendation in 2021.