- Hon Simeon Brown
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.
"Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and in Budget 2024 our Government committed $609.25 million in capital funding for state highway recovery to restore roads back to their previous condition.
"This breakdown of funding gives affected communities certainty that the Government will deliver on its promise to fund state highway recovery projects.
"Investing in the recovery of our road networks is critical to restoring vital access to goods, services, and employment opportunities for affected communities across the North Island.
"We're committed to the recovery effort, and a key part of this will be restoring vital state highways across the region as part of our plan to get people and freight to where they want to go, quickly and safely."
The indicative regional breakdown of this spending includes approximately $131.3 million for Northland state highway recovery projects, $21 million for the Coromandel, and $250 million for the East Coast.
"This funding will allow the continuation of recovery works across our state highways, which are critical to enabling vital access for communities to goods, services, and employment opportunities.
"Recovery works include permanent structural or pavement repairs, drop out repairs, bridge re-establishment works, benching and shaping of slip sites, rockfall protection systems, and river training and scour protection.
"Work across projects in Northland is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, Coromandel by mid-2025, Hawke's Bay by late 2025, and in Tairāwhiti by mid-2026."
Budget 2024 also invests an additional $330 million over two years to continue the response and recovery work on local roads that were affected by NIWE.
"In addition to the state highway recovery funding, the Coalition Government is investing $50 million in local road response to enable Gisborne District Council and Hastings District Council to continue critical response work across their districts. Recovery funding of $280 million will support 13 councils affected by NIWE, and NZTA is working with councils to prioritise and accelerate delivery of this funding to local road recovery projects.
"Our Government is committed to ensuring our state highway corridors impacted by the NIWE are returned to the standard that Kiwis need and expect. I look forward to these works progressing and being completed."
