5. SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) Link to this
to the Minister of Transport
What progress is being made on the Tauranga Eastern Link road of national significance?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) Link to this
I am pleased to report that we will be turning the first sod on this $455 million project tomorrow, more than 6 months ahead of schedule. This is a very significant infrastructure project for New Zealand and an important building block in the Government’s plans for real export-led growth. All those involved in the project have worked hard to bring it forward. We will now have elements of five of the seven roads of national significance under construction, those being the Victoria Park tunnel, the western ring route, the Christchurch motorways, the Waikato Expressway, and now the Tauranga Eastern Link.
The Tauranga Eastern Link will dramatically reduce journey times across the Bay of Plenty, leading to significant productivity and economic benefits. It will especially reduce journey times between the cities of Rotorua, Whakatāne, the Bay of Plenty hinterland, and New Zealand’s largest export port at Mount Maunganui. It is estimated that the new road will shave up to 24 minutes off travel time for a return journey between Paengaroa and Te Maunga. Construction of the project is expected to employ 200 to 250 people at any given time over the next 5 years, with more jobs being created or sustained in support industries and in the wider regional economy.
Hon Darren Hughes Link to this
How can we have confidence in the figures that the Minister has given us about this road of national significance, when the New Zealand Transport Agency website makes it clear that the volume of traffic on the Pūhoi to Wellsford road of national significance is between 10,000 and 16,000 vehicles per day, and yesterday during question time he tried to assert that it was 24,000?
The numbers are different depending on whether one uses Warkworth and Wellsford, or Pūhoi to Warkworth, when looking at the numbers. As the member will also know, I talked about the number of people travelling on those roads, and that includes, of course, a multiplier for the number of people in each car, because quite often there is more than one person per vehicle. Of course, Mr Hughes may have trouble with that arithmetic.