In the Heat of the 2014 Election Campaign, Prime Minister John Key Promised Something
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FOR TRUCKS' SAKE In the heat of the 2014 election campaign, Prime Minister John Key promised something the people of Taranaki have yearned after for 175 years - a better road north. Or did he? JIM TUCKER looks into what opposition politicians dubbed a classic case of "pork barrel" politics. It took 14 hours the first time. It must have been about 1950 when our family made its first road trip from New Plymouth to Auckland, in one of Dad's bread vans, with easy chairs wedged into the dark cavity of the delivery compartment behind the cab. Goodness knows how much we bounced around on the primitive springs of the old International truck as it navigated the equally primitive tarsealed "highway", with its narrow bridges, tunnels, winding deviations, long intervals of loose metal, a shortage of shoulders for emergency carsickness stops, and an intriguing tarseal change from black to white when it hit limestone country around Te Kuiti. There, the dotted centre line turned black. It took 14 hours; more than enough time to drive from Kaitaia to Wellington these days. Things must have improved by the late 1950s, Two of the most urgent Taranaki developments though, because Dad made a solo trip in his six- made Key's list - the Normanby overpass, and cylinder Citroen in just five and a half hours. that troublesome 145-odd kilometres of State Everyone said he was mad. Highway 3 from Te Kuiti to the SH3A turnoff I must have been mad, too, because a decade or so near Waitara. later I did it in three and a quarter hours. But that The first was a given, and made the top five "A- was in an MGBGT sports car, late on a Sunday list", projects that were already well-investigated, night, when there were no cops around, no speed had started or were due to get under way. It gets cameras…and few trucks. $10 million to $15 million. That last point is important. The second, SH3 north, is more problematic. It's Trucks are largely what this story is about. Every on a "B-list" of six projects, works that apparently day, about 700 of them traverse State Highway 3 need more investigation over the next couple of between North Taranaki and south Waikato. Two years before a start can be made on actual work. in five vehicles on the road is a truck, according By 2017, according to media reports, the road will to the NZ Transport Agency. have $20 million to $25 million spent on it. They're a key component of Taranaki's economy, So, the breakthrough, at last? Well, maybe, maybe they're getting bigger, and they're one of the main not. To understand why, let's look at the history of reasons why Taranaki's movers and shakers have what may be the most reported-on stretch of state been agitating for a better road for decades. highway in the country. You can imagine their sense of triumph when John Key made his election announcement on June 29. The government would commit $212 million of extra spending on a list of 11 regional roads, on projects that can't meet the usual spending criteria - traffic counts, population densities, value for money, relevance to the national economy, and so on. f we had a dollar for every official word It lacks passing lanes. Venture Taranaki's written about Taranaki's northern state 2012 report noted there were none between I highway there would probably be enough Mt Messenger and the Awakino Gorge for money to daylight both tunnels. stretches of 79km going north and 65km For the past 15 years, the SH3 political debate has going south. Some have been added, but been awash with complex plans and reports by there are still 35-kilometre stretches of Taranaki Regional Council (1999, 2010), the winding road where traffic is trapped behind TRC-hosted Taranaki Regional Transport trucks and slow drivers. Committee (strategy plans in 2011 and 2014), the The road surface is poor in places, which SH3 Working Party (booklets in 2007 and 2014), means higher fuel and maintenance costs, Transit NZ (1999, 2000, 2006) and its successor, especially for truck companies. the NZ Transport Agency, consultants like Beca (on what to do about Mt Messenger, for example) There are few road shoulders to give drivers and maintenance contractor Transfield Services, a margin for error or for pulling to the left the Government (for instance, the 2013 Regional when entering a side road or gateway. Economic Development Report, and various There are hazardous rock falls, regular Government Policy Statements), the Ministry of washouts, and frequent slips. The road has Transport (freight studies and strategies for been closed for a couple of days at a time heavier trucks), the Road Transport Association, after bad weather. KiwiRap (which ranks the safety of roads), and Venture Taranaki (The Road Ahead, 2012). There There is patchy or no cell-phone coverage. are undoubtedly others. Calling an ambulance can be a major mission. From these various studies we know for sure what we already knew just from driving over the route: The average traffic flow is a little over 2000 vehicles a day, but that can vary wildly if It's the only way north to what economists weather closes central North Island now refer to as the "golden triangle" of highways, sending more trucks over SH3 (a commerce between Auckland, Hamilton and route drivers may not be familiar with). Tauranga. There are about 70 tanker trips a day, It's scenic, but dangerous. In the nine years according to National MP Johnathan Young from 2002 to 2012, vehicle accidents caused (in 2011). 32 deaths and 85 serious injury cases. In March, a New Plymouth woman was killed When Fleetwood Mac played the Bowl of when rocks fell off the cliff above Body's Hill Brooklands in 2009, the traffic count shot up south of Piopio. to 6000. FATAL: Traffic builds up around the scene of a road death on SH3 at Body's Hill in March, after a boulder plunged down from the cliff-face and crushed a car. o why isn't something being done? Actually, something is, which we'll get to in a moment. S First, let's look at the reasons why it's so hard for Taranaki officials to get through to the central government bureaucrats who have the last say on where transport project money is spent. For a start, there aren't enough people here. One of the squeaky wheels that gets government oil is high population density and road congestion. Read - Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch. Taranaki has 2.5 percent of the country's population, and as Jonathan Young points out, it gets about that much share of the regional road project funding. Then there is something called "national significance". The Government has selected roads of national significance and said they would attract more funding. Many are in Auckland - like the one being burrowed under Mt Albert by that giant tunnelling machine. Taranaki local government lobbied hard to have SH3 north declared a road of national significance, but the Government was unmoved. A large stretch of SH3 north is not actually in Taranaki. It's on the bottom end of King Country and Waikato, and given the latter's current obsession HARD FIX: The cliff above Body's Hill is stabilised with cuddling up road-wise to its more "golden" with steel rods and netting. neighbours, Auckland and Tauranga, the remote and expensive highway south from Te Kuiti is not (with a dozen different territorial, city and exactly a big priority. regional councils on it) is a disparate body of conflicting interests, compared to the single- The Waikato Regional Council and district mindedness achieved by Taranaki's committee councils like Waitomo make the right noises to (comprising three territorial councils and TRC). placate their Taranaki neighbours, are members of the 30-strong joint SH3 Working Party (set up Mostly, that's how road projects are paid for - in 2002 to co-ordinate lobbying efforts), and do from fuel excise taxes and road user charges commit some of their money to improvements. (about $2.5 billion a year) gathered in by the NZ Transport Agency. But there's a limit to how much precious regional road funding they will agree to part with. In their That money has until now been doled out to each latest spending plan they have ignored the road region on a user-pays basis, which means completely, much to the concern of the Taranaki Taranaki doesn't actually get anything extra to Working Party members. pay for SH3 north once it crosses the border at Mokau River. Waikato's regional land transport committee The local body politicians here and in Chiefs Here are the facts on safety: actually, the one fact country have tried to cut deals on SH3. Taranaki that counts - this is a very unsafe road. agreed to fork out some of its regional road fund The New Zealand Road Assessment Programme, money to help Waikato and King Country KiwiRAP, rates nearly two thirds of SH3 in upgrade the road. Taranaki as level 2 (the best being level 5), which But the agreement fell over when Taranaki found means it has poor roadside conditions, it needed every dollar for home projects like New insufficient overtaking provision, narrow lanes, Plymouth's current northern outlet work and and poorly designed intersections. various improvements to SH3 going south. Confusingly, KiwiRAP says the risk of crashing Another problem looms, as well. The 10-year on SH3 north is medium (improved from regional road funding model expires next year, medium-high in 2007).