Luke Kirkness: This is not the time to delay the crucial Takitimu North Link

White crosses marked sections of SH2 from Te Puna to Ōmokoroa but plans to improve the highway have been scuppered. Photo / George Novak

OPINION

There is a time and a place for everything and now is not the time to be taking funding away from the Takitimu North Link roading project.

Works will start on stage 1 — between State Highway 29 and SH2 near Te Puna — at the end of this year but the same can't be said for stage 2.

Stage 2, between SH2 Te Puna and Ōmokoroa, would not likely be touched within the next decade.

Originally, the two stages were expected to be completed by 2027 and cost a total of $933m. Stage 2 would cost $455m of this.

Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson identified increased construction costs following the Covid-19 pandemic as the key issue.

That sounds reasonable but — this is a big but — the Government also announced a new pedestrian and cyclist bridge would be built in Auckland.

The Northern Pathway, a new separate structure for walking and cycling as shown in this concept drawing, will be next to the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge. Photo / Supplied

The Northern Pathway, a new structure over the Waitematā Harbour separate from the Harbour Bridge, is estimated to cost a whopping $685m.

I figure the Government committed to this in the hope of trying to decrease car dependency in New Zealand's largest city.

And while reducing carbon emissions is an ever-present issue in 2021, I can't see why this bridge is deemed more important than the TNL.

State Highway 2 is a stretch of road that needs no introduction, an infamous thoroughfare for crashes and motorists' deaths.

Traffic congestion can also get horrifically bad heading into Tauranga in the morning and heading home again in the evening, even without any crashes.

Some people haven't taken too kindly to the news that the Government has decided to invest taxpayer money elsewhere.

It's not hard to see why either, having the rug pulled from under their feet after years of campaigning for change would be tough to take lightly.

The funding shift outlines a bigger issue.

In 2021, people are focusing too much on what will be popular on social media rather than what is actually practical or common sense.

Churning up soil to make way for a new expressway doesn't sound as sexy as a pedestrian bridge.

There will be people who use the bridge, no doubt, but I believe the numbers will be dwarfed in comparison to those who use SH2 each day.

Additionally, people aren't dying by being forced to catch the ferry, bus or even driving over the harbour in Auckland.

The same can't be said for SH2.

Infrastructure funding needs to go towards the people who use the road (motorists), not those the Government wants to use them (cyclists and pedestrians).

Some things can wait, others shouldn't — the TNL is one that can't.