New Zealand Road Projects

[Plutonic Panda]

A new 6.2 billion USD plan to improve and expand roads and freeways in NZ.

https://www.worldhighways.com/wh8/news/canterbury-new-zealands-us662-billion-transport-plan

[vdeane]

This looks to me like it's essentially their equivalent of a MPO program update, so probably not as exciting as the headline initially suggests.

Also, we had previously been appropriating this thread for New Zealand news, although one could question whether we should have.

[Chris]

The original Roads of National Significance (RoNS) projects was launched in 2009. This included some of the largest road upgrades in New Zealand in decades:

    SH 1: Puhoi - Wellsford (Auckland Northern Motorway)
    SH 16/SH 18/SH 20: Western Ring Route, Auckland (Waterview Connection)
    SH 1: Victoria Park Tunnel in Auckland
    SH 1: Waikato Expressway
    SH 2: Tauranga Eastern Link
    SH 1: Wellington Northern Corridor (Transmission Gully Motorway, Kapiti Expressway)
    SH 1/SH 73/SH 74: Christchurch Motorways

These are now completed.

The Waikato Expressway in particular was the first longer distance expressways in New Zealand, and the first two link two separate cities not part of the same metro area (Auckland and Hamilton).

The second round of projects announced recently appears to be of a smaller scale.

[kiwislark]

The original Roads of National Significance (RoNS) projects was launched in 2009. This included some of the largest road upgrades in New Zealand in decades:

  SH 1: Puhoi - Wellsford (Auckland Northern Motorway)
    SH 16/SH 18/SH 20: Western Ring Route, Auckland (Waterview Connection)
    SH 1: Victoria Park Tunnel in Auckland
    SH 1: Waikato Expressway
    SH 2: Tauranga Eastern Link
    SH 1: Wellington Northern Corridor (Transmission Gully Motorway, Kapiti Expressway)
    SH 1/SH 73/SH 74: Christchurch Motorways

These are now completed.

The Waikato Expressway in particular was the first longer distance expressways in New Zealand, and the first two link two separate cities not part of the same metro area (Auckland and Hamilton).

The second round of projects announced recently appears to be of a smaller scale.

Technically Puhoi-Wellsford isn't finished yet because it only goes as far as Warkworth at the moment! A very nice road though.

Here's the current RONs from the National/ACT/NZ First coalition government:

Northland

• SH1 Alternative to Brynderwyns - not stated
• SH1 Whangarei to Port Marsden - $1.3b

Auckland

• SH16 North West Alternative State Highway - $2.3b (extension of current SH16 Northwestern Motorway)
• SH1 Warkworth to Wellsford - $2.2b (extension of current SH1 Puhoi to Warkworth motorway)
• East West Link - $1.9b
• Mill Road Expressway - $1.3b

Waikato & Bay of Plenty

• SH29 Tauriko West (Tauranga) - $1.9b
  
• SH1 Cambridge to Piarere - $721m (extension of current SH1 Waikato Expressway)
• Takitimu Northern Link Stage 2 (Tauranga) - $627m
• Hamilton Southern Links - $600m

Hawkes Bay

• SH2 Hawkes Bay Expressway 4 laning - not stated

Wellington

• SH1 Second Mount Victoria Tunnel & Basin Reserve upgrade - $2.2b
• Petone to Granada Link Road and Cross Valley Link - $1.2b

South Island

• SH1 Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass (Christchurch) - $270m (extension of existing SH1 Christchurch Northern Corridor)
• SH6 Hope Bypass (Nelson) - $250m

https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/350204163/cheat-sheet-governments-15-roads-national-significance

[Plutonic Panda]

New 1 billion dollar expressway(freeway?) set to begin soon:

https://www.globalhighways.com/news/104-billion-funding-new-zealand-expressway

[Beltway]

This has been discussed over the years, but does not seem likely.

Quote:
To sum up a bridge or a road tunnel across Cook Strait would be infeasible, but actually a rail tunnel carrying passenger and freight trains and shuttles for cars and trucks would be possible. At 37km it wouldn't be the longest transport tunnel in the world, nor the deepest at 200m below sea level, but it would be close on both counts. It would deliver some pretty big time savings, with hours saved compared to the ferries, and it would provide greater capacity, flexibility and reliability to the national transport network.

However, just because it's technically feasible and provides benefits doesn't make it a good idea, because the cost of getting those benefits would be enormous. The travel time and resilience benefits wouldn't come close to exceeding the $50b or so it would cost to build a Cook Strait tunnel, and the amount of international borrowing required to fund it would amount to a threat to our national sovereignty. And if we did have that sort of money to spend on transportation in the country, there are a lot of other things we should be doing first with better returns on investment.

https://infrastructurenews.co.nz/bridge-tunnel-work-across-cook-strait/

[Rothman]

This has been discussed over the years, but does not seem likely.

Quote:
To sum up a bridge or a road tunnel across Cook Strait would be infeasible, but actually a rail tunnel carrying passenger and freight trains and shuttles for cars and trucks would be possible. At 37km it wouldn't be the longest transport tunnel in the world, nor the deepest at 200m below sea level, but it would be close on both counts. It would deliver some pretty big time savings, with hours saved compared to the ferries, and it would provide greater capacity, flexibility and reliability to the national transport network.

However, just because it's technically feasible and provides benefits doesn't make it a good idea, because the cost of getting those benefits would be enormous. The travel time and resilience benefits wouldn't come close to exceeding the $50b or so it would cost to build a Cook Strait tunnel, and the amount of international borrowing required to fund it would amount to a threat to our national sovereignty. And if we did have that sort of money to spend on transportation in the country, there are a lot of other things we should be doing first with better returns on investment.

https://infrastructurenews.co.nz/bridge-tunnel-work-across-cook-strait/

Eesh.  I guess they publish without editing their articles first.

[Beltway]

This has been discussed over the years, but does not seem likely.

Quote:
To sum up a bridge or a road tunnel across Cook Strait would be infeasible, but actually a rail tunnel carrying passenger and freight trains and shuttles for cars and trucks would be possible. At 37km it wouldn't be the longest transport tunnel in the world, nor the deepest at 200m below sea level, but it would be close on both counts. It would deliver some pretty big time savings, with hours saved compared to the ferries, and it would provide greater capacity, flexibility and reliability to the national transport network.

However, just because it's technically feasible and provides benefits doesn't make it a good idea, because the cost of getting those benefits would be enormous. The travel time and resilience benefits wouldn't come close to exceeding the $50b or so it would cost to build a Cook Strait tunnel, and the amount of international borrowing required to fund it would amount to a threat to our national sovereignty. And if we did have that sort of money to spend on transportation in the country, there are a lot of other things we should be doing first with better returns on investment.
https://infrastructurenews.co.nz/bridge-tunnel-work-across-cook-strait/

Eesh.  I guess they publish without editing their articles first.

I didn't have a problem. But I have read NZ articles and heard them speak, and it is just a different flavor of English.

It's written in a very New Zealand journalistic style, which is a little more conversational, a little less formal, and sometimes uses phrasing that Americans (or Brits) find slightly loose.

There's nothing in that article that would trip up a native English speaker -- it's simply NZ English, not U.S. editorial style.

[Rothman]

This has been discussed over the years, but does not seem likely.

Quote:
To sum up a bridge or a road tunnel across Cook Strait would be infeasible, but actually a rail tunnel carrying passenger and freight trains and shuttles for cars and trucks would be possible. At 37km it wouldn't be the longest transport tunnel in the world, nor the deepest at 200m below sea level, but it would be close on both counts. It would deliver some pretty big time savings, with hours saved compared to the ferries, and it would provide greater capacity, flexibility and reliability to the national transport network.

However, just because it's technically feasible and provides benefits doesn't make it a good idea, because the cost of getting those benefits would be enormous. The travel time and resilience benefits wouldn't come close to exceeding the $50b or so it would cost to build a Cook Strait tunnel, and the amount of international borrowing required to fund it would amount to a threat to our national sovereignty. And if we did have that sort of money to spend on transportation in the country, there are a lot of other things we should be doing first with better returns on investment.
https://infrastructurenews.co.nz/bridge-tunnel-work-across-cook-strait/

Eesh.  I guess they publish without editing their articles first.

I didn't have a problem. But I have read NZ articles and heard them speak, and it is just a different flavor of English.

It's written in a very New Zealand journalistic style, which is a little more conversational, a little less formal, and sometimes uses phrasing that Americans (or Brits) find slightly loose.

There's nothing in that article that would trip up a native English speaker -- it's simply NZ English, not U.S. editorial style.

Lots in there that would trip up someone trying to find support for the article's assertions.