New Zealand’s federal government is accelerating works on a new four-lane highway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance (RoNS) program.
The RoNS scheme is package of major transport projects that, once completed, will achieve a variety of goals including the reduction of congestion, improvement of safety, support of housing development and the providing of a more resilient road network.
“For too long the lack of resilient transport connections between Northland and the rest of the country has been a handbrake on the region’s economic development,” Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.
“An accelerated delivery strategy developed by NZTA includes a progressive public private partnership model that will achieve efficiencies and innovation in planning, procurement, design and construction across the entire roading corridor between Auckland and Whangārei.
“It will do this by treating the three Roads of National Significance as three stages of the same project and incentivising the development partner to deliver excellence in design, construction, financing, maintenance, and operation for each phase of the expressway.
“Taking a corridor approach means NZTA will avoid multiple procurement processes. It will also deliver integrated design, construction, maintenance and operations across the entire Northland Expressway, and allow greater efficiencies through scale to deliver the project up to 10 years faster than traditional approaches.”
The Northland Expressway is one of the largest infrastructure projects in New Zealand’s history. A report by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research last year stated the Warkworth to Wellsford section of the expressway alone would increase the nation’s annual GDP by $497 million.
“Once completed, the Northland Expressway will provide a modern, reliable, and efficient link between Northland and Auckland, unlocking economic growth and productivity by moving people and freight quickly and safely across the region,” Brown continues.
“We are considering a wide range of funding, financing, and delivery tools to get this project completed as soon as possible.”
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