Photo: Supplied / NZTA / Mark Coote
Councils at the bottom of the North Island have written to the government to say changes to the Ōtaki to North of Levin (02NL) expressway are short-sighted.
Months out from work beginning, a revised design for the highway has seen on-ramps and overbridges removed and the northern end reduced from four lanes to two.
The design also canceled the bridge that would link Manakau Heights to the rest of Manukau.
The four councils which work together under the Wellington Leadership Forum - Greater Wellington and Horizons regional councils and the Horowhenua and Kāpiti Coast district councils - said the changes would curtail development.
In a letter, they told Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop and Waka Kotahi chair Simon Bridges the proposals were retrograde and undermined the government's growth strategy.
They said the downgraded proposals announced by the NZ Transport Agency reduced 02NL to what they described as a "minimum viable project".
Significant new residential development was expected as a result of the development of Transmission Gully and the Kāpiti Expressway, the councils said.
"We request an opportunity to meet on this issue, to understand what options you have to intervene as the Minister of Transport and the Chair: Waka Kotahi, to give the Lower North Island the quality of roading infrastructure that it is going to require to cater for the urban and industrial growth that is already materialising on this corridor."
Waka Kotahi has said the design changes were primarily driven by the government's drive to save money.
But Project Director Glen Prince said eighty percent of the design remained intact and the road would still be of significant benefit to the region.
He said more work would have to be done before the agency could say how much money would be saved by the changes.
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