Media Release – SaveKapiti Incorporated – 2 February 2011

Kapiti Expressway budget blowout means substandard SH1 for another 10 years

According to NZTA’s newsletter, the latest costings for the MacKays to Peka Peka expressway are $630 million. This blows the budget by $80 to $150 million above their original estimate but does not quite extend to the $220 million that has previously been reported. If these figures are correct, it means that NZTA has had to put cost-cutting measures in place, but just where have those ‘savings’ been made?

Kapiti residents John Andrews and Mike Alexander who live close to MacKays crossing say that amongst other problems, the SH1 road appears to be sinking. Councillor K Gurunathan wrote a report on the issues around the neighboring Emerald Glen extension almost a year ago, citing dozens of improvements that NZTA was required to address in their ‘Road Safety Audit’. Most of MacKays crossing and the Raumati Strait are built on the drained peat bog that dominates the route for the Kapiti expressway. It is no surprise that residents who live close to the area and observe it daily say that the road is subsiding. But improvements to this area were not included in the original unrealistic budget for the Kapiti expressway.

The expressway gets more expensive by the minute. Other issues not incorporated into NZTA’s initial budget include flood protection and wetland management issues. NZTA highways manager Rod James believes that the recently announced design ‘improvements’ (and the reason for the budget blowout) will please local residents. But their ‘improvements’ are nothing more than addressing the issues that Kapiti locals have been telling them about since before the designation was confirmed.

The Government Policy statement on Land Transport Funding sets the government’s priorities for expenditure for the next 10 years and places the ‘Roads of National Significance’ at the top of that list. The Government’s ‘priorities’ put the Kapiti expressway above all other considerations and is reflected in NZTA’s lack of action around the myriad of other road issues in Kapiti. Instead of upgrading the problems on state highway one, they slash the budget for the sinking Raumati Strait. Instead of installing median barriers, they put up traffic cones at an area where three people have recently lost their lives. Instead of fixing the ‘black spot’ at Otaihanga, they plan to put a roundabout on SH1 so that trucks can get access to their expressway construction site. Instead of upgrading the bottlenecks at Otaki, Waikanae and Paraparaumu, they plan to build another massive highway down at the beach.

Meanwhile, New Zealanders are left with a national highway that is substandard, sinking, dangerous and without sufficient safety barriers for at least another 10 years until their ‘new and improved’ highway would be built.

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