Bay road in line for $190m cash boost

The New Zealand Transport Agency will spend $190 million on Hawke's Bay roads over the next three years.

It will focus on links to the Port of Napier, improving road safety and projects which promote transport choices such buses, walking and cycling.

The agency released details of its funding programme this week. Largely it will be split into $116 million on local roads and $74 million on state highways in the region. Nationally it is spending $12.3 billion on transport.

There will be a special focus on providing better roads in Hawke's Bay which could stimulate economic growth, linking key business and industrial hubs to the port, for example.

The funding programme includes a contribution, of about $24 million, towards the proposed Whakatu arterial road, which will aim to improve connections from Hastings industrial areas through to the Hawke's Bay Expressway and on to the port.

"These investment are focused on improving the efficiency of freight movements from source to destination," the agency's funding report said.

Hawke's Bay was one of two locations in New Zealand selected for the "model communities" walking and cycling programme which has been renewed for Hastings District Council, with the aim of shifting more people from their cars onto "active modes of transport", it said.

NZTA would also invest $10 million in maintaining the region's public transport network, to increase the number of people using buses, for example, and for programmes which looked at alternative transport options.

The funding report said public transport was important for the high number of people commuting between Napier and Hastings but it was pedal and foot power which had proved most popular in the past couple of years. "Significant local investment in walking and cycling has seen a moderate modal shift in Napier and a significant shift in Hastings."

Hawke's Bay's high road crash rate, which included 15 deaths and 56 serious injuries in 2011, had warranted further investment towards promoting the Government's Safer Journeys plan, which targets higher-risk sections of the roading network, the report said.

Transport programmes would target mainly rural roads where a high number of fatal and serious crashes had been recorded.

Other projects likely to be considered for construction during 2015 to 2018 included state highway improvements, passing lanes, between Napier and Gisborne, the Tarawera Hill realignment on state highway 5 between Napier and Taupo and the link between Awatoto and the Expressway.