Roading setbacks a 'slap in the face' for Waikato

Waikato mayors, bitterly disappointed by delays to key highway projects, have won support from a veteran Government MP to turn political heat on Transit New Zealand.

Hamilton West MP Martin Gallagher said that his party affiliation presented no obstacle to battling the agency's relegation of projects in its draft 10-year plan.

"On this one I'm the Waikato's man in Wellington," he said.

Mr Gallagher pledged to campaign against timetable setbacks to the proposed dual carriageway expressway along State Highway 1 from Mercer to Cambridge, and for sector bypasses through his Hamilton electorate.

Although Transit is on track to complete a section of the expressway by early next year along the notoriously winding 10km section from Mercer south to Long Swamp, Mr Gallagher and members of the region's mayoral forum are fuming over delays to projects south of Rangiriri.

The draft highways plan, issued by Transit this week for public consultation, has at least offered a date for a 2.5km bypass of a dangerous stretch at Rangiriri.

But motorists will have to wait until 2014 for work to start there, and on a $120 million bypass of Ngaruawahia, after a proposed two-year delay.

A $35 million bypass of Cambridge also faces delay, by a year until 2013.

Transit has refrained from including bypasses of Huntly and Hamilton on the 10-year plan, and has also delayed two proposed bypasses through the city's western flank, from Horotiu to Te Rapa and along Avalon Drive.

Mr Gallagher, a former deputy mayor of Hamilton, said a contest between children on bicycles and "juggernaut" trucks along Avalon Drive was a serious safety issue and the setback was a slap in the face for the city.

He has asked Transport Minister Pete Hodgson to visit the Waikato to meet the region's major before Transit finalised the plan.

"I don't know how often I have to say this to Transit, but continued progress on the Waikato expressway and the city's arterial roading system is absolutely critical to our region's economic well-being. Hamilton City Council transport committee chairman Dave Macpherson said the Waikato had fared worse than any other region in the draft document in terms of timing, and feared some projects would never begin.

He said the council felt particularly hard done-by over the work at Avalon Drive.

It had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in investigation and preparation costs in partnership with Transit, in expectation of the work being offered for tender within months.

It would now have to wait at least until next year, and a two-year delay to the Te Rapa bypass until 2012 presented a major headache because of a recent extension of the city's northern boundary to accommodate it.

He said he did not begrudge the "squeaky wheel" of Auckland its major transport funding, but warned Transit that the Waikato councils were forming a united front to become similarly vociferous.

Transit's Waikato manager, Chris Allen, blames unforeseen cost increases for the delays but says some of the affected projects could yet be brought forward once regionally distributed funds become available from extra fuel tax this year.

He acknowledged the displacement effect on roading budgets of Auckland's transport needs, but said the Waikato depended on getting its goods to market so had a shared interest in clearing bottlenecks in the larger centre.

Transit's 10-year draft plan

Already complete

2km dual carriageway at Long Swamp.
$26m Rangiriri to south of Ohinewai, 10km dual carriageway.
Huntly internal bypass - $4.72m.

In progress

Rest of Mercer to Long Swamp dual carriageway, to be completed by early 2006. 10km - cost $74.5m.
10km road widening and median barrier, Long Swamp to Rangiriri, $5.75m to be completed this year

Scheduled future projects

Rangiriri bypass, 2.5km for $20m, proposed start date 2014.

Delayed

Ngaruawahia bypass - 12km, $120m, start date 2014 (was 2012).
Cambridge bypass - 12km $35m start date 2013 (was 2012).

Hamilton bypasses

Avalon Drive - 2.5km, cost $22.8m. Start date 2006 (was 2005).
Te Rapa - from south of Horotiu to Avalon Drive. $70m, start date 2012 (was 2010).

Not yet in 10-year plan

Hamilton eastern bypass - 15km, cost $250m.
Huntly external bypass - 15km, cost $180m.