Independent review needed before Government move on new motorway projects

The Government risks wasting billions of dollars if it moves ahead with four new Roads of National Significance as flagged in its just-released infrastructure report, Labour’s Transport spokesperson Phil Twyford says.

“Any moves to progress those projects should be halted until there is an independent review of the current motorway building programme to check value for money.

“We already know some of the existing seven ‘Roads of National Significance (RoNS) are duds that are costing the country a billion dollars a year, yet produce little benefit.

“The Mackays to Peka Peka section of the Kapiti Expressway was revealed this week to have a benefit-cost ratio of only 0.2. It would cost $515 million to build but would only generate a return equivalent to $118 million over 30 years. The Government has dismissed concerns about the economic value of the project and is charging ahead.

“The Puhoi-Wellsford holiday highway barely breaks even but will cost at least $1.7 billion. The numbers for both the Puhoi and Kapiti projects don’t stack up because they are duplicates of existing low-traffic roads.

“The Government is already spending a billion dollars a year on some very questionable motorway projects. It would be an economic crime to ramp that up without some serious scrutiny.

“Until there is an independent review of National’s so-called Roads of National Significance and their value for money, there is no way the Government should be proceeding with four new projects.

“I am writing to the Auditor General to ask for a review of the RoNS programme, to test whether there is sufficient accountability for value for money, and whether NZTA’s approach to assessing the economic value of projects is robust enough.”