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Monday, July 8, 2024

Chris Lynch: “They’re not elected” Minister’s message to council transport planners – no more speed bumps


Transport Minister Simeon Brown has confirmed National’s ‘Roads of National Significance’ are being reinstated.

Brown said the previous government had canceled several key projects, including the Woodend Bypass.

“We’ve brought that back. We need to build roads for the future in this country so we can unlock economic growth and productivity” he told chrislynchmedia.com.

“We can reduce travel times, unlock land for housing, and the Woodend Bypass is one of the priority projects we’ve announced today.

“It’s critically important for Canterbury, and it’s one of the roads we’re going to get started on as quickly as possible within the next three years.”

He outlined the immediate steps being taken starting the work around property purchases, setting up a team to ensure they understand the project scope, and all the necessary preparations to then procure someone to construct it.

More detail around the exact timeframes will be announced in early September when the National Land Transport Program is confirmed by the New Zealand Transport Agency board.

“The agency is already getting underway with the preliminary work so that we can move as quickly as possible.”

Brown criticised the previous government for neglecting essential preparatory work.

“The reality is, for the last six years, the last government wasn’t doing the design work, the designations, the consenting, or the property purchase for these major roading projects, including the Woodend Bypass.

We’re getting that back on track so we can get all of these roads under construction over the next three years,” he said.

When asked about the number of speed bumps being constructed across Christchurch, Brown had a message for council transport planners.

“There’s no funding for speed bumps on our roads. And what I would say to those Council transport planners is that they are not elected, and the councillors and the and the government are – and we have changed priorities based on what the public voted for at the last election, and we’re delivering on the agenda that the public voted for us, which is focus on back to basics, fixing the potholes, repairing the roads, resealing them, and building the new infrastructure that New Zealanders need, and not just simply slowing people down and making it more inconvenient to get around.”

Broadcaster Chris Lynch is an award winning journalist who also produces Christchurch news and video content for domestic and international companies. Chris blogs at Chris Lynch Media - where this article was sourced.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How on earth do any councils anywhere justify $350,000 for a speed bump ?
Even a generous $10k for materials and $10k for labour - where did the other $230k go ?
Please check the accounts !!!

Robert Arthur said...

Council staff now have little ability other then to let contracts. Simple projects tax oversight the least and are also welcomed by contractors as simple for low skilled employees and in the case of speedbumps of limited life and lucrative to regularly replace.So there is all round enthusiasm for such. Many traffic calming measures seem to reduce smashes but very many go unreported as contact with difficult to blame on another driver even if a major factor. Without, many damaging contacts would be avoided.
Decades ago local smashes were slow to be cleared and were reported in newspapers. Convictions followed and were reported. Motorists today know little other than their own experience. If there was greater awaremness, many would likely drive more carefully.

Anonymous said...

we all know where the other 350k went - traffic management of course!