The Hawke's Bay Expressway remains two lanes for much of the journey, but that could change if National is elected. Photo / NZME
A Government led by the National Party will four-lane the Hawke’s Bay Expressway if it’s successful at the General Election in October, the party announced Monday.
It is part of National’s “Transport for the Future” plan, costed at $24 billion and including several other major projects nationwide.
A policy announcement came just three hours before Minister for Cyclone Recovery Grant Robertson announced Government is providing a further $567 million for “immediate” works on state highways in Cyclone Gabrielle regions from the $6 billion National Resilience Plan announced in May’s Budget.
The investment is on top of the $525m already provided in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, with work including replacement of dozens of national highways and council roads bridges.
Among them are temporary fixes for links destroyed by the collapse of the State Highway 2 Waikare River bridge between Napier and Wairoa, reopened in May, and part of the Redclyffe Bridge between Taradale and Waiohiki, set to reopen in the next week according to the Hastings District Council website.
Four-laning the Expressway has been an issue since opening 20 years ago, but with land purchased under a Labour-led Government at the time for such future development.
It became more of an issue since Cyclone Gabrielle wiped out two other bridges between Napier and Hastings in February, and Tukituki MP Anna Lorck says she and Napier MP Stuart Nash have been “advocating hard with decision-making ministers and we believe we are being listened to”.
Central to the plan is adding two more lanes at the bridge over the Tūtaekurī River near Taradale, a major bottleneck since the Expressway reopened after the storm.
National Party candidates Catherine Wedd (Hastings-based Tukituki) and Katie Nimon (Napier) say four-laning will bring significant efficiency and resilience to Hawke’s Bay.
“Upgrading the Hawke’s Bay Expressway will improve our region’s resilience and this commitment shows only a National Government will deliver for Hawke’s Bay,” Wedd said.
“Thousands of people are currently gridlocked on the expressway each day and are waiting hours on a road that needs an upgrade. Four lanes are so desperately needed to get Hawke’s Bay moving,” she said.
Nimon said: “The gridlock on the expressway is also affecting our public transport system. We have one hospital, one police station, one sports park, all shared by our two cities and we should be connected by a reliable efficient road.”
National’s East Coast Resilience Transport Package includes upgrading the Expressway between Hawke’s Bay Airport and Pakipaki, State Highway 5 between Taupo and Napier, and SH 2 between Napier and Gisborne, and the party says it will prioritise funding.
Three years ago the party pledged $200m on SH5 if it became the Government in the 2020 election, and Wedd claimed Labour had taken the issue “off the table” when it became Government in 2017.
In his announcement, Robertson said the resilience plan was established to support building infrastructure that is more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
“We indicated that immediate focus would be on building back better from the North Island weather events earlier in the year,” he said. “Over time, the plan will also address the severe infrastructure deficits that have held New Zealand back.”
Minister of Transport David Parker said that now almost all links had been restored, many of the roads need to be made safer and more resilient.
“We need permanent solutions in places where Bailey bridges were put in to reopen river crossings,” Parker said. “This extra funding will replace or strengthen and rebuild damaged bridges. It will also improve the road surface on major stretches of road where potholes and cracks left after the weather events have made travel slow and frustrating for locals.”
The politicking doesn’t impress Hawke’s Bay Regional Transport Committee chair Martin Williams, noting that a National-led Government under Prime Minister John Key in 2010 introduced a Roads of National Significance schedule, focusing on the “top half” of the country and ignoring Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti and much of the rest of the country, leaving those areas in “maintenance deficit”.
Williams said Hawke’s Bay needs “consistency”, which is expected to be part of the discussion when the committee has its regular meeting on Friday, amid setting a “strategic vision, objectives, policies, and priorities” as the basis for the draft 2024-2027 Regional Land Transport Plan.