Chester Borrows: Taking out trouble spots

Chester Borrows

CUTTING the ribbon on the Normanby bypass on a fine, sunny day last week with Minister of Transport Simon Bridges was a great ceremony to be part of.

A quick snip and a few words signified the end of a lot of lobbying and effort over many years. It also, hopefully, ended the shocking carnage which had been seen on this section of a busy highway in the last few years and is a welcome time-saver and safety enhancement which was long overdue.

Identified as a priority in the Regional Land Transport Programme for the region, it was also included in the government's accelerated regional roading package which made significant funding available -- almost $18 million in this case -- for important state highway projects.

On the same day, I was with Mr Bridges for the beginning of another important project.

Along with mayor Hamish McDouall at Whanganui Intermediate School we had the pleasure of turning the first sods of a new inner city cycleway, later cutting the ribbon to open the first of a three-section riverside cycle route.

Safety and free access for students and residents will be the benefits here, quite apart from better health and family enjoyment for many years to come.

Roading a lot further afield is also relevant to this region, so I need to mention the on-going highway work at Mount Messenger and Awakino Tunnel and the opening of the Kapiti Expressway.

A long way from us, I hear you say? In kilometres perhaps, but anything to enhance freight or visitor access into this region has to be a positive thing, and anything that reduces the cost of doing business, enhances safety or reduces time is an asset to the whole area.

As a regular traveller between the electorate and Wellington, I can vouch for the fact that the new Kapiti Expressway means journey time is reduced anything between 15 minutes and an hour-and-a-half, depending on the traffic snarl situation which beset the existing highway at peak times.

All of this activity prompted me to ask the New Zealand Transport Agency just where we are at with that other most important corridor -- State Highway 4 and the Parapara which suffered badly in the June 2015 storm.

The highest profile enabling works for Anzac Pde are due to start later this month. After the storm, there were 17 parts of the highway between Raetahi and Whanganui with geological complexities needing major effort. Three have been repaired, six are being worked on and three more will be under way by the end of this month.

The other five trouble spots are still in detailed design phase.

Good roading is a key to economic success for the entire region and, although it is one of those on-going and ever-present projects which require huge investment, I think we've made real progress in the past few years, and by prioritising major work we are now starting to see the benefits.