The Tide is Turning on the RoNS
We have been pretty critical of the Roads of National Significance over the last few years for a number of reasons. The key reasons being that many of them will have very poor economic performance and that are sucking up huge amounts of transport funding which means other areas in the transport budget are being neglected.…
12 Comments Other RoNS to cut back?
Yesterday’s announcement by NZTA that they are scaling back the Otaki to Levin section of the Wellington Northern Corridor Road of National Significance, from a four-lane highway to an upgrade of the existing road, has some really interesting implications – as Matt commented on in his post last night.…
Is the NZTA starting to scale back the RoNS?
An interesting development was announcement today by the NZTA. For the Wellington Road of National Significance they have decided on what they will do between Otaki and Levin. Here’s the press release: The NZ Transport Agency has today announced its plans for the next stage of the Otaki to Levin section of the State Highway 1 Wellington Northern Corridor Road of National Significance, proposing a staged upgrade of the existing highway, starting with a series of safety improvements between Otaki and SH57.…
Transport Issues Across the Country
The NZTA has just released to me a document they had initially withheld from an earlier OIA request, it shows what the agency consider to be the high and medium impacts for each region around the country. What I found interesting looking at it was not only how intertwined that the many of the issues are but how the current spending and priorities are so far removed from the issues.…
Get your Feedback in on the Future of the Wellington St on-ramp
The NZTA has currently been doing some consultation on whether the Wellington St on-ramp should re-open and the chance for feedback closes on Friday so if you have a view make sure you get your thoughts in. The whole thing has been a bit of a saga so it would be good to get a final decision, whatever the outcome.…
Changes to the Waterview Interchanges & Cycling Route Moves Closer
Last week the NZ Herald reported that the NZTA was once again looking at making changes to the design of the Waterview project
Designers of Auckland’s $2 billion Waterview motorway tunnels project are trying to solve congestion and safety problems at a three-tiered interchange between two state highways.…
Excellent in Parts: The NW Cycleway Finally Arrives
With much excitement NZTA and AT announced the extension of the strangely terminating NW Cycleway into the city. The evening was carried along by the limitless enthusiasm of Barbara Cuthbert of Cycle Action who certainly has decided that smiles and and encouragement opens more doors than complaint.…
Petrol tax to increase
As expected, today the government announced that petrol taxes and road user charges will increase (by 2c a litre and 4.1% respectively), as of August 1st.
Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has today confirmed increases in petrol excise duty of two cents a litre and an equivalent increase in road user charges of an average of 4.1 per cent.…
More information about the RoNS
A couple of further documents relating to the Roads of National Stupidity Significance, prepared by NZTA, provide a bit more information on where each of the projects are at.
Ministerial Briefing – February 27th
Investment Outcomes – March 16th
There’s also a good Radio New Zealand piece on the documents, in which both Phil Twyford and Julie-Anne Genter (Labour and Greens transport spokespeople) highlight their fundamental concerns with the RoNS package, whether they’ll actually be able to be funded, whether they’re value for money and so on.…
The Upcoming NLTP: trying and failing to put lipstick on a pig
There will be a lot of discussion over the coming weeks and months about transport funding – how much is going to be spent on what types of transport projects over the next three years. This is because NZTA’s “National Land Transport Programme” (NLTP) is in the final phases of being put together, and it is the NLTP which guides how NZTA spends your petrol tax and road user charges over the next three years.…
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