Transit claims backing for tollway

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Transit NZ has finally found what it says is the strong community support it needs to build its first tolled highway.

The board has decided the $300 million Northern Motorway extension to Puhoi should be a toll road, after household and workplace surveys found greater support than from a general call for submissions.

But Transit will present both findings to Transport Minister Pete Hodgson by early December, for his decision on whether it can raise about $145 million from a 35-year Government loan, repayable from inflation-adjusted tolls starting at $1.80 for cars and $3.60 for trucks.

It will meanwhile apply this month to Transfund for the rest of the project finance, from the Government's National Land Transport Fund of fuel taxes, road user charges, and motor registration and licensing fees.

Work on the 7km extension of the motorway from Orewa could start this summer.

A Transit consultant's analysis of face-to-face surveys by market-researchers, of 1140 people living, working or studying near the planned motorway said these showed "a high level of support" for building it as a toll road.

A household survey of 1035 people was supplemented by a smaller poll of people who travel to the area for work, and was "peer-reviewed" by Massey University marketing professor Philip Gendall.

The new Land Transport Management Act requires Mr Hodgson to be satisfied there is "a high degree of support from affected communities" for any tolled road he may approve.

But legal advisers to Transit have described this as a vague and untested phrase not found in any other statute.

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed supported tolls to varying degrees - 63 per cent, compared with 35 per cent opposed to the project, against a margin of error no greater than 5 per cent.

But only 32 per cent were strongly for tolls, just ahead of 31 per cent described as "somewhat in support".

Even so, this was a stronger vote for the project than Transit gained from 656 submissions received from people and organisations from a wider area, which were split evenly for and against tolls - 47 per cent each way, with 6 per cent undecided.


Transit's board has agreed that the agency will work with Rodney District Council on managing the alternative toll-free coastal route to Puhoi and investigate options for collecting fees from motorists without electronic windscreen devices.

The agency's procurement general manager, Brent Maguire, told the Herald it would prefer not to have to collect cash from infrequent users as this would interfere with traffic flows.

Other options included invoicing motorists through vehicle registration records or deducting tolls from pre-paid cards.

Mr Maguire is also preparing to distribute discussion booklets on national toll collection options, for which submissions will be invited over the next few weeks, to be followed by more public hearings.