Napier truckie's dilemma: NZTA won't listen regarding State Highway 5

Tony Alexander (left) hears National Party Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule, Napier candidate Katie Nimon and transport spokesman Chris Bishop, on the road in the 2020 election campaign. Photo / NZME

Career truck driver and Napier-Taupo highway improvement activist Tony Alexander has condemned speed limits as the cheap way out for authorities who don't have the investment they know the road needs.

Speaking after Friday's announcement by national highways manager Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency that the limit on a near-90km stretch of State Highway 5 between the Esk Valley and Rangitaiki will drop from 100km/h to 80km/h in 10 weeks' time, Alexander said: "They're admitting that the road, itself, needs an upgrade, and that they haven't got the money.

"I think this is ridiculous," he said. "It's just NZTA admitting they don't have the money."

He said the absence of any fatalities on the road in the last 14 months has proven the effectiveness of increased policing of the highway – there had been nine deaths between February 2019 and October 2020, all but one of them in the area to be controlled by the new limit from February 28 next year.

He believes it's political, with the National Party's 2020 election promise of a $200 million being followed by an NZTA commitment to $100m, but says: "Nothing's started yet."

While he says problems stem from under-investment over several decades, there have been issues of poor maintenance for much of the time since 2009 when the Government of Prime Minister John Key introduced its Roads of National Significance project, prioritising funding at the time to seven major roads, but none in Hawke's Bay.

Alexander, who runs the Facebook page SH5 Napier-Taupo Issues, said the NZTA is "not listening to the users" of the highway, but for him it's not the end of the road.

"It's all we can do – keep campaigning," he said.