Four-lane Hawke’s Bay Expressway to lose funding if Government axes $6b infrastructure plan

A four-lane Hawke’s Bay Expressway is one of three major roading projects that could be in jeopardy if the Government decides to axe the $6 billion National Resilience Plan.

But Minister of Transport Simeon Brown said the Government remains committed to post-Cyclone Gabrielle recovery efforts in Hawke’s Bay, including roading projects.

The NZ Herald reported about an accidental revelation that Finance Minister Nicola Willis received advice on disestablishing the infrastructure plan, set up after Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods to fund “strategic investments” in “building back better”.

National had earmarked three major roading projects in Hawke’s Bay to be funded by the National Resilience Plan, including four lanes for the Hawke’s Bay Expressway.

Budget ideas are typically marked “Budget Sensitive” and not released to the public, but Treasury’s regular release of titles of advice received by the Minister of Finance revealed in February that Willis received a paper on “Discontinuation of the National Resilience Plan”.

Willis earlier told the Herald the name of the report was released in error and it was “advice only”.

Almost $2.8b from the fund has been allocated so far.

In a joint statement from the four mayors of Central Hawke’s Bay, Hastings, Napier and Wairoa and the chair of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, released through the Regional Recovery Agency, the leaders said they were collectively reaching out to central government in response to “media coverage suggesting the National Resilience Plan may be discontinued”.

The group said the National Party had earmarked three major roading projects in Hawke’s Bay that would be funded by the National Resilience Plan.

“These include upgrading the Hawke’s Bay Expressway from two lanes to four, upgrading State Highway 5 from Napier to Taupō and restoring and upgrading State Highway 2 between Napier, Wairoa and Gisborne, all of which are key to the recovery of our region’s economy,” the statement said.

“As the region’s leaders, we will continue to advocate strongly to ensure these projects progress as indicated. We appreciate the Government’s willingness to date to engage in discussions around cyclone recovery,” the statement said.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said the National Land Transport Programme will provide more detail on the funding and delivery of three major Hawke's Bay roading projects as uncertainty arises for local councils. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Brown said in a statement that the three projects were listed in New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s (NZTA) recently released State Highway Investment Proposal.

“I have had discussions with mayors from the Hawke’s Bay and understand how regionally and nationally important SH2 and SH5 are to support economic growth and the importance of upgrading the Hawke’s Bay Expressway.

“NZTA is currently developing the National Land Transport Programme, which will provide more detail on the funding and delivery of these projects.”

The 24km Hawke’s Bay Expressway is part of State Highway 2 and the main route between Napier and Hastings.

Both National and Labour promised to upgrade the road to four lanes (two southbound lanes and two northbound lanes) if elected last October.

Napier MP Katie Nimon recently told Hawke’s Bay Today the project to turn the two-lane Hawke’s Bay Expressway into four lanes would begin this term.

Nimon said any further comment she made at this stage about whether projects could be affected by the axing of the National Resilience Plan would be speculation, but noted the Hawke’s Bay Expressway was one of the Roads of National Significance.

The draft Hawke’s Bay Regional Land Transport plan proposes investing just over $830 million from 2025 to 2030 for the four-lane expressway project.

The draft plan also put forward a “medium to long-term programme” of improvements with a cost between $750-830m for State Highway 5 between Napier and Taupō.

The plans said this would allow an increase of the speed limit to 100km/h from the 80km/h limit that came into effect in February 2022.

Improvements would include roadside barriers, curve improvements, shoulder widening and central barriers or wide centrelines along much of the road and possible speed changes at Te Pōhue and Te Haroto.

NZ Transport AgencyNZTA, in consultation documents released by its Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC) team, revealed potential upgrades and rebuild projects along State Highway 2 between Napier and Wairoa, including the option to build a bridge to ease the sharp bend at Devil’s Elbow.

Other potential upgrades on State Highway 2 include raising the road from Esk River Bridge to Whirinaki Drain to reduce the frequency, depth and duration of overtopping from floods and upgrading the Whirinaki Drain culvert to a larger size to allow more water to pass through.

An upgrade of the SH2 Esk River Bridge to raise it was also suggested to reduce closures from flood events and address safety and seismic vulnerabilities.

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. You can contact him at james.pocock@nzme.co.nz.