Two Week Manawatu Gorge Closure is Not Good Enough

New Zealand First wants the National Minister of Transport to explain to the region why it will be at least two weeks before the Manawatu Gorge (SH3) reopens for traffic.

“If this was an Auckland motorway, the New Zealand Transport Agency would be busting a gut to get it open, but because it’s the Manawatu, we are put on the go-slow,” says Darroch Ball, New Zealand First Palmerston North List Member of Parliament.

“This is just not good enough and it makes me angry because the Manawatu has had a gutsful of being treated as a second class region. Because it is not in Auckland we get scant critical coverage especially following the previous closure that lasted over a year.

“I know this road is prone to slips but SH3 through the gorge is a vital link to Tararua and Hawke’s Bay. This road needs to be treated with greater urgency and the Minister ought to be fronting than leaving it to the NZTA’s spin doctors,” Mr Ball said.

ENDS

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