National Land Transport Programme 1996 - Napier regional office newsletter (Gisborne/Hawke's Bay regions)

 

Avenues August 1995 edition

NLTP 1996 regional allocations Hawke's Bay/Gisborne

NLTP 1996 new construction projects Gisborne/Hawke's Bay

NLTP 1996 summary of allocations Gisborne/Hawke's Bay

The Napier regional office of Transit New Zealand covered both Hawke's Bay and Gisborne. This newsletter highlighted spending in both regions for the 1996 NLTP.  $28.5m was allocated for Hawke's Bay and $19.5m for Gisborne, indicating a significantly higher proportion of funding per capita for Gisborne than Hawke's Bay, as funding was driven essentially by need.

In both regions nearly as much was funded for local roads as for state highways, indicating the scale of maintenance and renewals needed across the road networks of both regions. Funding for passenger transport was low with less for Hawke's Bay than Gisborne, presumably dominated by paratransit provision with most other passenger transport being commercially provided.

By far the biggest project was the commitment to complete the Elands-Glengarry realignment on SH5 (Napier-Taupo road) at $4.51m, but there are also seal extensions in Gisborne district worth over $1m and around $1.3m in emergency works in both Gisborne and Wairoa districts for local roads. 

The biggest new construction project was local, with the Tapuaeroa Seal Extension, Part II in Gisborne district. with only two intersection upgrade projects on the State Highway network approved.  Interestingly the Pilchers Road intersection upgrade on SH2, is now on SH51 (as SH2 was shifted to the completed Hawke's Bay Expressway) on a section of road subsequently reduced in speed limit to 80km/h. 

Once again, this shows Transit New Zealand's commitment to uplifting the quality of the local road network, in partnership with territorial authorities willing to provide matching funds. Projects ranged from seal extensions to bridge replacements and roundabouts to improve safety.  Notable is the beginning of the project to extend seal on the Napier-Taihape Road in Hastings District (which ultimately would see the road fully sealed in the early 2010s). 

At the planning stage is significant spending on investigation and design for what was then called the Napier-Hastings Motorway (latterly the Hawke's Bay Expressway) for the extensions to Hastings (Omahu Rd) and the Airport, as well as the Kennedy Road Interchange to replace the previous accident prone traffic light controlled intersection.  Those projects would all be funded in the subsequent five or so years, seeing the major highway in Hawke's Bay shift from being through central Hastings and along the Napier foreshore to a two-lane expressway bypassing both Hastings and Napier, with two grade-separated intersections.