The Road Toll of the RoNS
How many people have been killed or seriously injured because of a myopic focus on over-scoped highways?
This isn’t a rhetorical question.
The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) – the name of which is a political slogan – are a number of State Highway projects first proposed in 2009, by then National Party Minister of Transport Steven Joyce.…
29 Comments Throwback Thursday: Holiday Highway Benefits Disputed (by Northland)
Over the last 15+ years, Greater Auckland (and formerly as Transport Blog) have been scrutinising the Roads of National Significance, and specifically the ‘Holiday Highway’ between Puhoi and Wellsford.
We’ve long been proponents of better, cheaper, and quicker-to-deliver solutions (than the proposed Road of National Significance mega-project), importantly for the safety issues on the stretch of State Highway 1 between Puhoi and Wellsford, but also across the wider Northland Region.…
The nation’s most expensive road (so far)?
If built, it will be the most expensive road ever constructed in New Zealand.
$3,500,000,000 to $4,000,000,000.
Over twice the cost per km as Transmission Gully.
And it is not a good project, by any measure.
And it’s currently being rushed towards construction, with a Public-Private Partnership contact set to be signed by July, locking in a generation of New Zealanders who’ll be paying the bill over the next few decades.…
The elephant on our roads: let’s lighten the load
Yesterday, with the fuel crisis as a rationale, the government announced an intention to allow heavier vehicles on New Zealand’s roads. This includes letting freight trucks carry heavier loads, and giving them more access to more of our road network, more of the time.…
Is reality setting in, re the Northland RONS?
There have been a couple of pieces this week about a few parts of the Northland Motorway that show reality is starting to bubble up – but will it reach the surface in time?
On Monday there was an op-ed in the Northern Advocate, from Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper.…
Getting better use of our transport networks.
Letting trucks use bus lanes – currently being proposed as a fuel crisis measure – might sound like a sensible solution, but it risks undermining broader goals around our transport system.
At the end of last week saw a few interesting comments from Mainfreight CEO Don Braid, and a swift response from Mayor Wayne Brown.…
AT Surveying about Western Line Level Crossings
As we’ve highlighted before, when the City Rail Link opens later this year the Western Line is set to benefit the most. Not only will it see the addition of two new city-centre stations (which all lines will benefit from), it also gets a significantly upgraded station (Maungawhau).…
Is government grasping the crisis and opportunities?
With the fuel crisis ramping up, all eyes are on the government’s response. Officially there’s a plan, with four phases. There are two relatively similar phases, Watchful and Precautionary – and then a quantum leap to quite serious measures at phases 3 and 4, Managed and Protected, both currently under consultation.…
Tolling will not touch the sides of Warkworth to Te Hana
With a contract due to be awarded in the next few months and construction starting later this year, at the most recent estimate of $3.5 to $4 billion – though possibly higher now – the Warkworth to Te Hana motorway will be the single most expensive roading project NZ has ever built (so far).…
Charts to watch as fuel goes up
There’s a lot going on in the world right now and it has the potential to have significant impact on transport (and the economy) here in New Zealand.
With that in mind, I thought I’d just pull together a few quick charts.…
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