Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith.
THREE KEY FACTS
Grant Smith is Mayor of Palmerston North
OPINION
I want to kick off this new spring season with a boring-as, nuts-and-boltsy sort of word – “infrastructure”.
Actually, I’m following on from my August column here that focused on roading – only this time the perspective is informed by last week’s national Building Nations - NZ Infrastructure Forum.
You’d think from the huge attendance that “infrastructure’ was some sort of rock star - selling out Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre. For those of us in local and regional government, this was the hottest ticket in town. Why?
Because infrastructure is, in my opinion, fundamental, hugely expensive, chronically lacking investment, lagging behind, and under the spotlight from central government.
It’s also no secret many of us think the local government funding model for roading, pipes, fresh and waste water treatment is broken. Quickly finding affordable workable solutions to the current conundrum is critical in my opinon.
Insights into optimising project planning and delivery, while leveraging private capital and fostering new public private partnerships, were among the issues covered at the forum.
There were also announcements from Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, with the Government establishing a new National Infrastructure Agency to look at planning 30 years out and to set policy and the agenda for major projects.
Hopefully this comes with some sort of cross-party consensus.
Subjecting new highways to tolls was the flavour of the forum. In fact, NZ Transport Agency will be seeking public feedback online from September 9 to October 7 about proposals to toll Te Ahu a Turanga Manawatū Tararua Highway and the Kāpiti Expressway extension north of Levin.
Tolls could also be applied to our hoped-for Manawatu Regional Freight Ring Road (MRFRR).
I’m not opposed to tolls so long as there’s a free route, and some of the funds go to help the councils that have to maintain these routes, or to finance new connected roads like the MRFRR.
It should be noted tolls are how other countries fund and build infrastructure, and nationally tolls have been successfully integrated into the Auckland to Northland motorways and around the Bay of Plenty.
There are well-established precedents for tolls. Historically, they were applied to the first road through the Manawatū Gorge from the mid-1870s, and from the 1920s for crossing the Ōpiki suspension bridge. Famously, the Auckland Harbour Bridge was tolled for 25 years, so they’re nothing new.
The passage through Parliament last week of the Government’s second Local Water Done Well Bill gives a one-year timeline for all local authorities to create a Water Services Delivery Plan. This is something that will require a regional approach, to be co-ordinated over a relatively short period.
In town, we’re embarked on a two-year $500,000 upgrade of our Wikiriwhi Pump Station, with new pumps costing around $60,000 apiece, which will add resilience to our stormwater network.
Meanwhile, new wastewater standards to be mandated by central government but yet to be drawn up by Taumata Arowai, the National Regulator for Water Services, will have consequences for our Nature Calls wastewater options and plans.
Alongside this big-picture stuff, there is ongoing maintenance to wastewater, storm and freshwater conduits and to roads and bridges. You can check the council Facebook page for the comprehensive list of infrastructural work under way and the impact this will have on a number of city thoroughfares.
Chief among these will be a rebuild of Railway Rd, requiring its detoured closure between Tremaine Ave and Francis Way until the end of October.
Detours and speed restrictions will also affect Victoria Ave between Manapouri Cres and Main St from now until Christmas. Work is now under way to renew the Amberley Ave bridge. With signed detours, this will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians until mid-2025.
These projects and a number of other ongoing works are all part of the council’s “looking after what we have” approach to the city’s infrastructural renewals, upgrades and maintenance programme.
On average, 18 people die every year in recreational craft incidents in New Zealand.