NZTA
The southern options for the Ōtaki to north of Levin expressway have their own pros and cons, according to the road project manager.
All options for an expressway to the east of Levin have their problems, but the project manager says they are better than going to the west of the town.
But if the Ōtaki to north of Levin highway goes ahead – it is currently in limbo, with the Labour-led Government yet to release its policy statement on roading – construction will not start until 2022 at the earliest.
The road’s project manager, Lonnie Dalzell, gave Horizons Regional Council’s regional transport committee an update on the road on Wednesday.
The expressway would start just north of Ōtaki, take traffic around Levin and end somewhere south of the Manawatū River.
A longlist of options for the NZ Transport Agency gave routes both to the east and west of Levin, but has since been whittled down to options solely to the east.
Many have criticised going east, as 75 per cent of people who took part in early engagement about the routes wanted it to go to the west.
Dalzell said going to the east would improve traffic flow better.
Models showed northbound traffic would split evenly into three if the road went to the west, going on the new road, through Levin, and on State Highway 57 to the west.
Although traffic on a western route would get massive time savings, there would be no improvements, and possibly longer travel times, for the other two-thirds, Dalzell said.
Going west would also fail to deal with the area’s horrific road toll. There had been 57 deaths on roads in the area between 2012 and 2017, with three deaths and five serious injuries in the past six months, Dalzell said.
The crashes were spread over a wide area, meaning changing one or two sections of road would not solve the risk. However, taking traffic to the east would give the best time savings and make things safer for almost everyone, Dalzell said.
There are three options for the southern section of the expressway: One just to the east of the current SH1, another further east, and a final option that starts further east, but then comes in and runs along the same route as the first option.
Dalzell said they all had problems.
The one furthest to the east affected fewer properties, but would require more bridges, hiking the price.
The one closer to the current SH1 was “technically a better-performing option”, with better travel time and a much lower cost than the far east option, Dalzell said.
“The one thing against it was it impacted twice as many dwellings.”
The third option split the difference between the two, he said.
The options for the northern part of the route were less controversial, as no-one was technically better than the other, Dalzell said.
Horizons chairman Bruce Gordon had one thing on his mind when Dalzell asked for questions.
“When will the first machine arrive?”
Dalzell said the New Zealand Transport Agency board would pick a preferred option in mid-2018, after which it would take 18 months to create a detailed business case.
The consents process would then take another 18 months, but could be delayed if there were appeals taken to the Environment Court.
“Everything going to plan… it’s at least four years away from today,” Dalzell said.