Urgent action needed on killer road

Government interference and a lack of funding means that much-needed improvements to State Highway 2 haven’t even been started, says National’s Transport spokesman, Maurice Williamson.

“This will mean more unnecessary carnage on our roads this Christmas.”

A plan to build a four-lane expressway from Pokeno, at the bottom of the Bombay Hills, to Mangatarata, just past the Thames turn-off, has been in development by Transit NZ since 1999.

More than 30 people have been killed on State Highway 2 in the past five years – a crash rate more than 40% higher than on other highways of this type.

“But, like so many other important developments, progress in upgrading the highway has been dogged by funding constraints and complex decision-making processes,” says Mr Williamson.

The first phase of the upgrade, a two-lane realignment with passing lanes at Mangatawhiri, was due to be funded in 2003 but was held up by a Government review of all roading projects exceeding $20 million. The project is now expected to start next year and will take four years to complete.

“Despite recent fuel tax rises and record Government surpluses, Labour continues to sit on its hands while unnecessary casualties mount up on our roads,” says Mr Williamson.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>