Pretty much every single time we hear the government talk about the Puhoi to Wellsford road of national significance they say that its crucial to Northland’s economy, even standing up and saying so in parliament here are a few quotes from different exchanges:
Phil Twyford: Does it make economic sense to borrow to fund the Pūhoi to Wellsford “Holiday Highway”, which has a benefit-cost ratio that barely breaks even and costs $1.7 billion, when a $400 million upgrade would fix the congestion and safety problems?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Although I disagree with many of the assertions made in that question, I would say that I think that providing a stronger link to Northland, where there is so much poverty yet so much economic potential, is a good idea.
Phil Twyford: Has any assessment been done comparing the impact on Northland’s economy of spending $1.7 billion on a roading project that is not even in Northland with other options such as upgrading the North Auckland rail line, more quickly and cheaply improving safety on State Highway 1, actually upgrading roads in Northland, or a regional economic development package?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: It may surprise the member to note that people cannot get their goods out of Northland unless there are roads outside of Northland. It sort of makes sense that if you want to get from Northland down to some other part of New Zealand, you need a road to get there. Eighty percent of all freight in this country is carried on the road. That is why we are putting the money into the road transport programme and the roads of national significance. Tell us, which of the roads in the programme would Labour stop?
Phil Twyford: Will he confirm that the proposed spend of $33 million on the Pūhoi to Warkworth design and property purchase while downgrading Warkworth to Wellsford to being a possible road of national significance confirms that the project has nothing to do with improving Northland’s economy, and everything to do with making it faster to get to the Prime Minister’s holiday home in Ōmaha?
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well, firstly, I reject that last statement; I think it is outrageous that the member has been so stupid as to make it. Let me tell you this: the programme has always had the Pūhoi to Wellsford road being designed, the designations put on it, the properties acquired, etc., in the current land transport period. It will be built in the 2015-18 period, unless we get a Labour Government, which will can it.
Yesterday Campbell live revealed that the benefit cost ratio for the Mackays to Peka Peka part of the Kapiti Expressway to be only 0.2, well it seems that isn’t the only project to see its BCR fall. First this document which is undated but the NZTA tells me was sent to the ministers office on 16 August 2012.
But how much is it meant to cost again, this from a document that was sent to the minister dated 03 August 2012 which is still using figures from 2009.
But putting aside the benefits and costs, is the Puhoi to Wellsford route the best way to improve the Northland economy? Well if improving the Northland economy is the goal then even the NZTA don’t seem to believe that the road is the best way to achieve that. Also from the document dated 3 August they state that the best thing we could do is to improve access to Marsden Point and getting goods to other destinations clearly comes in second.
Wow, who would of thought that the best way to get transport to improve the economy of Northland is to actually spend money on infrastructure in Northland. Of course these aren’t the first issues we have raised, the 2008 study showed there was little benefit in upgrading the route while we also showed that based on Gerry’s answers to written questions you would have to travel at up to 250kph to achieve some of the time savings that the benefits above are based on.
As Mr Anderson said yesterday, its really time for an independent inquiry into the NZTA and transport priorities, there is just far to many issues cropping up.
Processing...
Earlier analysis of the ‘thinking’ behind this project: http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2012/09/03/can-these-rons-make-a-right/
Does anyone know the the BCR of the Waikato Expressway is?
Greater than the Kapiti or Wellsford RoNS ?
Bits of the Waikato Expressway are really stupid. Definitely something to analyse closer.
Phil should have responded with a supplementary: “Is the Minister aware that there is already a road between Puhoi and Wellsford, which is far from capacity at present?”
… and indeed the foreseeable future.
Or “Is the member capable of answering a question without looking like a total idiot”.
Not to mention a second state highway from Auckland to Wellsford, and a railway.
The real question should be: “why would a third state highway ‘unleash’ Northland when the first two state highways and the freight railway haven’t?”
Please! “Would of”??
“Would have”. Correct use of language is important.
Build roads to address poverty. Now that’s novel.
have the road built using pick and shovel, provide jobs in a style consistent with the age of the philosophy underpinning them
Please remember there are also three airports of note in Northland ( Whamgarei , Kaitai and Kerkeri) also shiiping access from Whangarei and BOI and also possible shipping on Kaipara harbour form Dargaville to Helensville. All in all pretty well connected. There were a few days in the mid 1980’s when SH one was out about 5km South of Warkworth for a few days after a big slip. Be interesing to now how much this “hurt” the economy of Northland. (* at the time SH 16 was not yet sealed all the way I think.
I wonder if NZTA have looked at during holiday time encouraging those bound for Wellsford or North to use Kahikatea Flat Road and SH16. Only an extra 15km, and would allow people to escape the worst of the traffic at Warkworth. WOuld only require a few signs at Albany and Siliverdale, maybe some newspaper ads. Might want to spend of few million on Kahikatea Flat Road, but I think would help many at the only times this road is actually congested.
They do try to advertise ‘going via SH16’ at the start of the holiday period. They even did it (on the radio) for the labour weekend a few weeks ago, and before Silverdale the info sign was advertising it also (not that there was any congestion at all when we went up Friday afternoon). Howverer, one does need to know the route or ‘go via SH16’ will mean nothing to them.
yes, hence mentioning Kahikatea Flat Road which is a much better diversionary route than just saying SH16. SH16 is ok if you live in Henderson, but going via Helensville if you are from the central area is much too far.
“much too far”? Really? If it’s going to save me four or five hours of crawling and idling I’ll happily go 30km out of my way. In the end it’s a much more efficient use of petrol, and saves me several hours on the journey.
The queues don’t start until Orewa on the worst day, so exiting at Silverdale, back tracking a bit down the Dairy Flat Highway then jumping over to SH16 via Kahikatea Flat Road will mean you experience no queues and take a shorter path than going up the Northwestern. See it on the map: http://goo.gl/maps/81drr
That’s 73.5km, if you drag the line to go up the northwestern it becomes 82.3km.
The only problem is the merging in the Wellsford township. If they could re-route SH16 to the North of Wellsford with a real interchange, holiday weekends would be much nicer. I’m sure it wouldn’t cost too much.