Four-laning SH1 to Ashburton makes sense

OPINION: This time last year the Prime Minister was under the pump, seeking to defuse the growing rift between the business community and her Government.

Jacinda Ardern's solution was to establish a Business Advisory Council (BAC), providing direct and high-level counsel to her Beehive office. It was empowered to be an influential agenda-setter and strategic policy advisor.

Under the chairmanship of Christopher Luxon, the Prime Minister vowed it would not be an inconsequential talk-shop. But, in truth, was it all window-dressing cynically designed to keep the business community at bay?

Last week's letter, signed by the outgoing chairman on behalf of the 13-strong council, is the most incisive test yet of her commitment to the BAC. The council has made an impassioned plea for the Government to get cracking on those 12 major highway roading projects that they slammed the brakes on – even if it means allowing them to be privately funded.

It's a refreshingly even-handed letter, with the BAC arguing that this isn't a choice between roads, rail and coastal shipping. It's right - we need all modes to be scaled up to blitz our infrastructure crisis.

Sadly, the so-called Roads of National Significance have become politically weaponised, derided by this Government as a symbol of National's obsession with high-speed cars. But when you pore through the dozen-strong list of "high priority" roading projects in the eyes of the BAC, the likes of Warkworth to Whangarei, and Christchurch to Ashburton, loom large.

They were unceremoniously dumped from the workplan with the change of government, but they need to be four-laned.

Luxon's council believes toll road regimes could expedite many of these projects, like the Penlink Toll Road project running across to the Whangaparoa Peninsula. The idea is its construction would be privately funded and operate as a toll road for 20 years, before reverting to the public realm at no charge.

But toll roads will only be palatable with motorists when there is a pre-existing and alternative, albeit slower, free route. Given how low interest rates are, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) should be mandated to raise debt to fast-track non-tolled highway projects that have been sent to purgatory.

Exhibit A is Christchurch to Ashburton, which wouldn't be viable as a toll road. Cantabrians have been marvelling over the steady progress of the Southern Motorway Stage Two extension which is on track to reach Rolleston by 2020, four-laning this critical corridor.

However, south of Rolleston, SH1 will revert to a two-lane country road, swamped with trucks, tourists and commuters. Nearly one in five of the 14,000 daily vehicle movements is a truck, according to the NZTA. It is a death-trap with an ever-increasing trail of carnage.

Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon confirmed to me last year that internal costings had priced the four-laning project all the way to Ashburton at $1 billion. That would include bridge widening across the Rakaia and Selwyn rivers.

What gives this project such an appealing head start is the fact that very little land needs to be acquired. South of Rolleston all the way to Ashburton, four-laning the highway is feasible given those vast swathes of roadside verges are already publicly owned.

Meantime, the NZTA is proposing some safety enhancements to SH1 between Selwyn and Ashburton, with a "flexible" median barrier and speed restrictions, for what it concedes is a "high-risk road". No new passing lanes are on the books.

But rather than tinkering, slowing down and caging in SH1 traffic, why not bite the bullet and four-lane it?

Despite the BAC's plea to the Government on fast-tracking roading projects, the Transport Minister is not for turning. Phil Twyford has junked the representations, arguing these roads don't carry the necessary traffic volumes to justify such expenditure.

His dismissive repudiation of the BAC's letter reeks of rampant ideology. After all, this is the man who blithely pledged that Labour would make commuter rail for Christchurch a reality, "starting with Rolleston to the CBD".

There's no public clamour for that white elephant. But will the Prime Minister overrule Twyford and back the BAC? Arden must know that when the rubber hits the road, major highway rebuilding could be an explosive 2020 election issue.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

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Keywords:

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