Quakes blow a hole in roads budget

Budget documents reveal the cost of fixing Christchurch’s roads after the earthquakes has blown out from $700 million to $965 million.

Labour’s Transport spokesperson Phil Twyford warns this will put even more pressure on the Government’s transport budget, already groaning under the weight of the $12 billion Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme and flat revenues.

“It is time for the government to take a hard look at the Roads of National Significance. They are looking more and more like a luxury the country cannot afford.

“Fixing Christchurch’s roads must take priority. At $965 million it is like adding a whole other RoNS project to the list,” Phil Twyford said.

“The 2011 Budget estimated the government contribution to fixing the Christchurch roads would be $400 million and hoped it would be able to be met out of a contingency line in the National Land Transport Programme. Budget documents now show the Government share of the job will cost $800 million.

“Local road maintenance, public transport, state highway projects and road safety have all been put on the back burner so this government can pour billions of dollars into its Roads of National Significance. Now with the cost of fixing Christchurch coming in at $965 million a difficult budget situation has got a whole lot worse.

“Officials told the government back in January that the Roads of National Significance ‘will place considerable pressure on the National Land Transport Fund to manage commitments within the likely revenue stream’, and that ‘unforeseen events such as the Christchurch recovery costs funded from the NLTF will put added pressure on the (funding) gap’. One of the options was to ‘slow down the investment programme in transport infrastructure’.

“It’s time National acknowledged that motorway-building binges are unaffordable and there are far more important issues it should be dealing with,” said Phil Twyford.