We’ll spend $750m on roads, says Brash

Don Brash

National Party leader Don Brash yesterday opened a bidding war for Waikato votes with a promise to put almost $750 million into four-lane expressways.

Dr Brash initially said in Hamilton that the Waikato would gain $540 million of an extra $4.5 billion that a National administration would recover over 10 years from fuel taxes now diverted into the Crown account.

This would enable the Waikato Expressway to be completed, all the way from Mercer to Cambridge.

"Under a National government this entire stretch of road would be built within 10 years, including the Rangiriri, Ngaruawahia, Huntly, Te Rapa, Hamilton and Cambridge bypasses," he said.

But last night, after driving from Hamilton to Auckland past earthmoving machinery working on the road, Dr Brash told the Herald he was confident National would also find enough money for a four-lane expressway on the notorious State Highway 2 through Maramarua.

"It's clear those roads have a very high priority - I am confident we can do both."

He said his initial commitment of $540 million was based on Transit New Zealand's formula of allocating national funds to particular regions, and promised more money would be found for both roads.

About $100 million has already been spent on sections of the Waikato Expressway, and Transit has earmarked $185 million more for it.

This includes a $126 million bypass of Ngaruawahia and $35 million to divert traffic round Cambridge.

But the plan makes no allowances for bypasses of Hamilton and Huntly, which will cost $448 million and which Dr Brash is now promising to finish if he wins office.

An expressway along State Highway 2 from Pokeno to Mangatarata would cost a further $300 million.

National's Hamilton East candidate, David Bennett, welcomed the announcement as a big victory for the Waikato and its economic future.

But his leader denied it was a pitch for local votes in an electorate held by Labour's Dianne Yates with a wafer-thin majority of 402.

A spokesman for Transport Minister Pete Hodgson said Dr Brash had still not explained where he would get the money from to boost the $18.9 billion the Government had committed to transport in the next 10 years.

The Government says that although almost $550 million a year is diverted into the Crown account from fuel tax, more than double that sum is paid from it to cover health and social welfare costs of road accidents and traffic air pollution.