In Transit March 1995 - No 61 - focus on bypasses

 

In Transit March 1995 No 61

Bypasses

Urlich Hill, Tar Hill, Catlins

Auckland south-eastern arterial etc

Bypasses

This edition ran a feature article on bypasses, highlighting the construction of the Pokeno bypass on SH1 being tendered (which would become essentially the top stage of the Waikato Expressway). The key point being how bypassing the town enabled reconstruction of its main road to suit local traffic and visitors, whereas some towns feared bypasses would mean the end of passing trade, Pokeno was welcoming it. 

The article continues to make some points about different towns and the conditions that determine whether or not a bypass might proceed such as whether existing roads are largely used vs. a new corridor (as the latter is more expensive it is less likely to be funded).  Levin and Stratford were cited as towns where it was too expensive to build a bypass as a new road would be needed.  Levin curiously was noted that 75% of southbound traffic and 66% of northbound traffic stops in Levin - given the current project to extend the Otaki Expressway to north of Levin (bypassing it), conditions have clearly changed somewhat.   Hikurangi and Mangonui in Northland have both benefited from bypasses, and it was noted that relocating SH1 away from downtown Hamilton had enabled the main street to be made more pedestrian friendly.  This reportedly increased city centre shopping.  

Wanganui was noted as having a motorway designation for a bypass, but this was considered unrealistic given traffic volumes, so a bypass close to the proposed route is proposed.  Ashburton was an interesting case study, in that SH1 was relocated onto a parallel road away from the town centre, but development occurred on the new route. This is considered suboptimal, because it simply means the new route becomes congested as well.  Transit NZ focused on bypasses providing safer and more efficient traffic flow.

Size of towns was important in considering bypasses, with Hamilton, Tauranga and Palmerston North having the main arterial running through them, able to stand on their own, but smaller towns regard through traffic as a lifeblood.  Timaru was noted as upgrading its main shopping street once its bypass is completed. Temuka likewise.  In Dunedin, SH88 was relocated away from Anzac Square/Dunedin Railway Station to make it more attractive for tourists, which was paid for fully by Dunedin City Council because it was a marginal disadvantage to motorists on the state highway. Progress was noted on designing bypasses for Motueka and Stoke, despite funding being considered marginal at this time. Finally, the bypass of Orewa (which ultimately became the Northern Gateway toll road) was noted as being as issue, because residents were concerned about the effect of the link road into Orewa (plus the original bypass designation was shelved, because Orewa's development mean the bypass would run between developments.

Other projects

• Urlich Hill realignment in Northland was approved (a 1km project)
• Mangaiti Hill deviation south of Tokoroa on SH1 had started (a 6 km project)
• Funding for sealing 11km of the Catlins Road had been approved, with a remaining 32km left to be sealed.
• Transit NZ has approved funding for Auckland City Council's South-Eastern Arterial project (with plans for it to be linked to Mangere Bridge in due course)
• Strategy underway to ease congestion on Auckland's Northern corridor, by relieving bottlenecks on approaches to the Harbour Bridge, and developing a priority lane between Onewa Rd and Constellation Drive to encourage bus use and high occupancy vehicles. This would ultimately lead to construction of the Victoria Park Tunnel and the Northern Busway (although at the time the plan was for widening the Victoria Park viaduct). Note the expectation at the time was that the busway would be a high-occupancy vehicle lane.

Finishing sealing the state highways?

In Transit February 1994

Hard as it is to believe, but the state highway network is to this day not fully sealed.  Ten km of State Highway 43 is not sealed today in 2023, although funding to address this was approved in 2019. State Highway 43.  Two of the twelve kilometres of the highway has been sealed recently, and the remaining work will be completed in 2024. This has taken quite some time, as the InTransit newsletter from the then State Highway manager (and funding agency), Transit New Zealand indicated. Transit New Zealand wanted to seal all of the state highways by 2002, with this headline story noting that SH87 Dunedin to Middlemarch, SH38 to Lake Waikaremoana and SH43 Stratford to Taumarunui had not been sealed.

However, these weren't the priority. Top priority was SH6 Haast Pass, which is extraordinary as this is the only road connection from the West Coast to Otago and Southland. This was followed by SH12 through the Waipoua Forest and SH25 around the Coromandel Peninsula. It is rather extraordinary to think that these roads were unsealed in considerable part 30 years ago.

SH6, SH12 and SH25 had sealing completed in the subsequent eight years, but SH87, 38 and 43 took more time.

SH87 Dunedin to Middlemarch was sealed in the late 1990s, noting that it had been neglected in part because the Otago Central Railway was seen as the key corridor, but that had been closed in 1990 and the remaining segment used for tourist excursions. There was definitely an element of political decision making to put some road improvements on a low priority to try to save rail.  A similar argument would have been made around SH43 Stratford to Taumarunui which until recently had a relatively well used railway line in operation, connecting Taranaki to Waikato and Auckland (with passenger rail service operating until 1983), and which until the 1990s had a freight terminal at Ohura. That railway line is mothballed, but undoubtedly its presence would have seen proposals to seal the parallel state highway as appearing to be wasteful.

SH38 Lake Waikaremoana was sealed subsequently, although it is important to remember that 198km of the route through the Urewera National Park is not state highway and is unsealed.

SH43 Tangarakau Gorge remains partly unsealed.

The attached report reflects a survey undertaken of local authorities and the tourism sector on priorities for sealing roads, at a time of tight budgets.  Notable was priority given to sealing Glenorchy Road around Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, and the Crown Range route, all of which proceeded in the 1990s as growth in tourism was seen as a national priority.  The Catlins route along the Otago-Southland coastline is also included in this and has no doubt opened up that scenic region to many more visitors (and again much of that area had a railway line until 1971 that would have influenced political decision making around upgrading a road when a marginal railway line was in operation). 

It is worth noting that at this time, when the funding threshold for road projects was high (a benefit-cost ratio of better than 5:1 required) sealing the state highways was seen as a strategically important project even though it had a poor BCR. In most cases the benefits were seen as mainly being reduced maintenance costs over 25 years, improved travel times and some improved safety, but wider economic benefits were not included in appraisal. It might be argued that having sealed these roads they induced more traffic which increased economic opportunities for tourism-supported businesses much further afield (e.g. encouraging self-drive travel between the West Coast and Wanaka/Queenstown). 

This is a reminder of the strict austerity around road capital spending by central government at this time, and indeed ho much government historically did not spend significantly on many state highways over decades if they were not seen as economically or politically significant.