The process, background and timeline provide ample evidence of a hidebound Wellington bureaucracy having little knowledge or understanding of the regions.
The sorry saga goes back to 2011 when the Gorge was closed for a full year. The alternatives, the Pahiatua Track and Saddle Road, weren’t up to the task so the agency decided to do some upgrades.
That was all well and good except that the Gorge was closed and so, for parts of the day, were the two alternatives.
The agency had years to upgrade the alternatives and didn’t, obviously because it didn’t consider them important.
Then the Manawatu Gorge opened again and did the agency upgrade the Pahiatua Track and the Saddle Road? Hell no.
It would have been obvious to the most ignorant that the Gorge would be closed again so when it was open would have been the ideal time to develop the Track and the Saddle Road.
That it didn’t is an indictment of even an ethereal bureaucracy like the agency.
Then in 2017 the Gorge was again closed, this time for good.
Transport from east to west and vice versa was again confined to the sub-standard Saddle Road and Pahiatua Track.
People waited in rapt anticipation for an answer from the agency, only to be frustrated by increasingly missed deadlines. It obviously wasn’t important to it If some wit told it the Gorge was in Wellington or Auckland I’m sure we’d have had instant satisfaction.
Now we have an alternative, one six years in the making and that, in my view, is a best case scenario.
It is totally unacceptable.
Talking to locals was really interesting.
“NZTA are impossible to deal with.”
“There were only two real options, the rest were a smoke screen.”
“The Saddle Road is unsafe, there are many accidents on it.”
“The Pahiatua Track is long and tortuous with only one passing lane each way.”
For the record, the single passing lane travelling west to east is near the end of the road and really short.
I also read that the Gorge closure was costing Palmerston North $60,000 a day.
Over the six-year waiting period the cost by my maths is $131,400,000. That’s a body blow for provincial New Zealand.
In addition, consider all the extra petrol and diesel we’re using getting round the Gorge and the global warming that is encouraging.
So the alternative is a road, six years in the making and costing a maximum of $560 million. That’s a paltry sum when compared with roads elsewhere.
For example, late last week we read taxpayers are going to have to fork out $1 billion for an extension of the Kapiti Expressway to bypass Levin.
Why would you?
The bill for the initial expressway was $630m. Such was the workmanship it had to be repaired within eight months. Unbelievably, the expressway didn’t reduce commuter times but increased them by 10 minutes.
They’re also going to spend another $330m on the final 13 kilometres.
That’s linking up with Transmission Gully that, according to the Greens, was going to cost over $1b.
Then, in the stupidity stakes, the agency donated $100,000 of your money and mine to decide a name for 18 kilometres of highway that is no longer part of SH1.
So money isn’t a problem for the agency, priorities are, especially when it comes to the Manawatu Gorge.
Putting it in perspective all the billions spent on getting north of Wellington have been spent for one simple purpose, to make commuting by car easier.
That it’s made commuting times longer is an indictment.
It is important to factor in an excellent commuter train service. People don’t have to use their cars, they choose to.
Conversely, the Manawatu Gorge is a critical link between both sides of the North Island. Having driven through it hundreds of times you can guarantee you’ll be stuck behind a truck.
It is not a discretionary route as the Kapiti Expressway and Transmission Gully are. It is a vitally important link for our primary industries.
It provides a highly productive path for our valuable exports.
Phil Twyford is the Minister of Transport who comes across as a capable minister. He did fill me full of horror recently, though, when he deferred decisions to the agency.
That is totally wrong. They got away with weak ministers over nine years and need a strong person to take charge, kick butt and take names.
As I’ve said, I believe they are an incompetent, hidebound bureaucracy totally out of touch with the provinces.
What I want to happen is for the Government to take control as it did as a result of the Kaikoura earthquake and get the job done and now.
Six years is totally unacceptable.
