National Road Carriers Association (NRC) is pleased to see rapid progress is being made on bringing all the projects listed in the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) closer to construction start.

Minister of Transport Chris Bishop has today announced the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board has endorsed investment cases for all of the RoNS, with the most recent endorsements including Sections 2 and 3 of the Northland Expressway, the East West Link, Hamilton Southern Links, Petone to Grenada and Cross Valley Link, SH1 Wellington Improvements including a new Mt Victoria tunnel, and the Hope Bypass.

The NZTA Board has also approved more than $675m in funding to progress consenting, design, route protection, site investigations, and some early works. In addition, more than $515m is expected to be used from approved RoNS property funding to enable local property acquisition to get underway on these projects.

“All of these projects are much needed improvements that will deliver safety, resilience and productivity to the roading network,” says NRC GM Policy and Advocacy James Smith.

“Many have been on the drawing boards in various states for decades so this meaningful progress is worthy of celebration.

“Construction will bring much needed work for the civil construction sector that has been through a fairly bleak few years.”