Media statement | 26 June 2007

Safe and efficient roads Land Transport NZ’s focus for Waikato

Improving the safety and efficiency of Waikato’s road network to cope with the transport pressures posed by rapid growth is the focus of the 2007/08 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) for the region.

Land Transport NZ today announced $2.4 billion in transport spending for New Zealand in 2007/08, including $213 million allocated for investment in Waikato’s land transport network.

This includes $99 million for maintenance of state highways and local roads and $11.6 million for development and improvements to passenger transport services in Hamilton.

In the past year Land Transport New Zealand funding has seen the successful completion of the Mercer to Long Swamp expressway which has improved safety and travel times on this busy section of SH 1.
 
Acting Land Transport NZ chairperson Paul Fitzharris says the agency and its partners are committed to making Waikato’s major routes safer and more efficient, and seeing passenger transport becoming a more attractive alternative to using the car. In the last six years bus patronage in the Waikato has increased by about 30 percent, to two million passengers a year.

Funding has been committed for the continuation of major projects, including:

• construction of the SH 1 Avalon Drive bypass in Hamilton
• construction of the SH 2 Mangatawhiri deviation to address the high crash rate in the area
• design of the SH 1 Cambridge bypass
• the four-laning of Church Road to Avalon Drive in Hamilton to ease traffic congestion.

Projects which may be funded during the year include:

• Norton Road reconstruction in Hamilton
• design of the western corridor route bypassing Te Rapa on SH 1
• design of a new section of SH 2 bypassing Maramarua to improve safety ($3.4 million).

A number of projects are planned during 2007/08 to extend existing pedestrian and cycling networks in the Waikato including Hamilton.

The Road Safety to 2010 Strategy goal for the Waikato region is that by 2010 fatalities and hospitalisations will be fewer than 570 per annum. There were 67 fatalities and 803 hospitalisations due to road crashes in Waikato during the 2006 calendar year. Funding for NZ Police land transport activities in the Waikato region totals $27.0 million to help reach the 2010 target.

Mr Fitzharris said a new element in this year’s NLTP is the inclusion for the first time of community focused activities, including road safety and sustainability initiatives. This change means the planning and funding of these activities can now be integrated with other NLTP activities.

Mr Fitzharris says the activities funded through the NLTP reflect Land Transport New Zealand’s objective of contributing to an integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable land transport system.

Regional newsletters, a fact sheet and the NLTP book, which details all projects in the 2007/08 NLTP, will be available at www.landtransport.govt.nz from 6pm today.

For more information:

Rosalie Orr
Partnership Manager, Midland
(07) 958 7840 or 0274 523 230