Tauranga: toll plan to fund traffic solution

By STACEY BODGER

TAURANGA - The only city in New Zealand to charge road tolls is today set to approve a second tolling station to pay for a $40 million expressway.

A special meeting of the Tauranga District Council is likely to recommend the installation of a toll station on State Highway 29 at Tauriko, 9km southwest of Tauranga, to fund the council's contribution to a $91 million roading project around the city.

The council already charges $1 for cars and motorcycles and up to $9 for trucks to cross the only toll bridge in New Zealand - the 1.75km Tauranga Harbour crossing, which opened in 1988.

But it is ready to apply to Parliament for permission to introduce a second roading charge to finance a 4.5km bypass of central Tauranga in the hope of relieving the city's worsening traffic congestion.

Project PJK, the country's largest single roading contract, is a joint effort by Transit New Zealand and the council to build a roading network around Tauranga, providing direct links from State Highways 2 and 29 to the Port of Tauranga.

The aim is to reduce the flow of inter-regional traffic through Tauranga's central streets, which Transit New Zealand figures show to have the highest traffic volumes and crash rates of any provincial city in the country.

Route J, a 3.1km highway from State Highway 2 funded by Transit New Zealand, is already under construction.

The council will fund the $40 million Route K, a four-lane expressway which will join State Highway 29 from Waikato and Auckland with the Waikareao Expressway - which leads to the existing harbour bridge. The route does not meet state funding criteria.

But because council traffic models estimate 40 per cent of Route K users will come from outside Tauranga, the council proposes to charge 80c to $1 for cars and motorbikes and up to $3 for trucks to use the expressway.

The Governor-General, MPs on business and on-duty police, fire and ambulance officers would be exempt.

Tauranga Mayor Noel Pope said the city would tolerate "flak" for moving towards user-pays roads.

Mr Pope said tolling was the only fair option available to the council, as using rates to fund the expressway would see an 11 per cent increase for ratepayers.

"We have a major problem with congestion and only an ignorant person would oppose our proactive quest for an immediate solution," he said.

If approved, the council will ask Tauranga MP Winston Peters to introduce a bill to Parliament similar to the Empowerment Act which approved the harbour bridge toll.

Road Transport Forum chief executive Tony Friedlander said there would need to be substantial net benefits from the proposal to justify the extra tax on transporters.