Motorway lobby revs up action

By STUART DYE

A lobby group of powerful Auckland businessmen is increasing pressure on the Government to unclog the region's gridlocked roads.

The Roads before Rail Trust is launching a high-profile campaign claiming incomplete motorways are killing Auckland.

A series of radio commercials will run from today, backed up by newspaper adverts later in the week, calling for the Government to solve the daily traffic jam.

Businesses are being "subjected to death by strangulation", says the trust and Government officials need to act now.

Trust chairman John Hynds, of Hynds Pipe Systems, estimates that the effect on the country's economy is in excess of $2 billion, and not the $1 billion quoted by Auckland City politicians.

"The situation is appalling but congestion around spaghetti junction could be reduced by up to 30 per cent if the western bypass was completed," he said.

"Instead ratepayers are paying huge demands to have the cash squandered on the rail system."

The trust says that it is common sense the motorway network needs to be completed before the rail system.

Mr Hynds said the western bypass and eastern highway had been planned 30 years ago but nothing had happened.

The campaign will increase pressure on the Government as it works towards an announcement on possible solutions in December. Officials in Wellington are working with planners in Auckland to find answers to unblock the roads.

Seven "work streams" are being scrutinised including road tolls, congestion charges, regional petrol taxes and a "catch-up" cash handout.