4 Jun 2021

Govt scraps road projects, pledges rail, cycling, walking plans

From Checkpoint, 5:10 pm on 4 June 2021

The government has pulled a u-turn on transport projects it promised more than a year ago, saying it wants to cut carbon emissions and potential price hikes too.

Six of the 32 multi-billion-dollar projects will not go ahead as planned - after an estimated cost increase of $6 billion across all of them.

Among the downgrades to the promised upgrades are the 22km four-lane expansion of state highway 1 in Northland and South Auckland's controversial Mill Rd.

Instead NorthPort gets a new rail link and South Auckland gets rail upgrades, and walking and cycleways.

But as our political reporter Anneke Smith reports - it is a move neither end of the political spectrum is completely happy with.