Wednesday, 25 August 2004
Glaring omission in roading study
The Allen Report on the benefits of investing in New Zealand’s roading infrastructure released today has one glaring
omission, according to United Future leader, Peter Dunne.
“Nationally, the study says such investment would be worth a billion dollars to the New Zealand economy in the year 2012
– an outcome much to be desired,” he said.
“In Wellington, it is estimated the region would receive a net benefit of $128.5 million per annum in 2012, if various
roading and rail projects were carried out.”
Those projects include the western corridor from Otaki to Ngauranga; the Hutt corridor from Upper Hutt to Ngauranga; the
Wairarapa corridor from Masterton to Upper Hutt; Porirua to Hutt Valley; and Ngauranga to the Wellington CBD.
Mr Dunne said “The glaring omission is the failure to mention the proposed Transmission Gully motorway. If that project
went ahead, I am certain the economic benefit to the whole region in terms of moving goods and people and the reduction
in the road toll would be massive.
“Only last week, we were reminded of the desperate need for the Transmission Gully route with the needless slaughter of
four Wellingtonians on Centennial Drive on the Kapiti Coast – a thoroughly inadequate road that is laughingly called
State Highway 1.
“It’s well past time for the planners to realise that the whole lower North Island would benefit from the Transmission
Gully route – and Wellington families would not have to endure decades of heartache and grief because their loved ones
are being killed on a grossly inadequate highway,” he said.
ENDS