The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country.
The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) concept was first introduced by the National-led Government in 2009 and led to a number of key state highway corridors being built.
The initiative focuses on essential routes for economic growth and productivity with safe and efficient movement of people and freight.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown says expanding the programme to roads that are regionally significant “will ensure that our cities and regions are well-connected, and our economy thrives”.
Similar to RoNS, Roads of Regional Significance will single out essential routes that require prioritisation, he says.
“Roads of National Significance and Roads of Regional Significance will replace the NZ Upgrade Programme (NZUP) which was severely mismanaged by the previous government.
“NZUP was subject to significant cost blowouts that resulted in project cancellations and delays across the country,” Brown says.
“When we came to government, we were advised that there would be a significant funding gap of up to $1.5 billion to deliver the NZUP projects. This is in addition to the cost increases which resulted in major project cancellations under the previous government, such as Mill Road.”
Alongside Finance Minister Nicola Willis, it has been agreed to delegate all decision-making responsibilities around project scope and delivery to the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA). It means ministers will no longer determine project scope and funding decisions.
“We are therefore changing how decisions are made on these projects and NZTA will be progressing with two RoNS and ten RoRS.
“Two further projects will now be incorporated into the Mill Road and Whangarei to Port Marsden Roads of National Significance listed in the draft Government Policy Statement on land transport 2024.
“In order to continue to deliver these projects, difficult decisions were made to keep costs within the existing $6.54 billion funding. We have made clear to NZTA that it must deliver these projects within the existing funding envelope, as there will be no additional Crown funding,” Brown says.
‘Taking NZ backwards’
However, Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere says the cancellation of The New Zealand Upgrade Programme is “short sighted”.
“New Zealand’s road networks are important, but so are the public transport, rail, hospital and school projects in our regions funded by The New Zealand Upgrade Programme which was designed to boost productivity and long term growth.
“This is another example of National throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The Government needs to be transparent about the future of other areas that were overdue for investment, and where the schools and hospitals designated funding will be funded from now.
“There is no long-term thinking from this government which is intent on taking New Zealand backwards.
“When it comes to these new Roads of Regional Significance, moving the decision-making responsibility from government ministers to NZTA, at a time when the public service is experiencing cuts, will make this challenging for the public sector. This is yet another example of a government not taking responsibility for progress in this area,” Utikere says.
“Worryingly, these decisions have been taken before the government has bothered to release its finalised GPS on Land Transport, making a mockery of the submission process that recently closed,” Utikere adds.
