Hundreds of people have attended a public meeting in Woodville tonight amid growing opposition to an NZTA proposal for tolling the replacement route for the slip-damaged Manawatū Gorge road.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) last month asked for public feedback about charging motorists for the Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū-Tararua Highway which is due for completion next year.
Te Ahu a Turanga is a new highway being built over the Ruahine Range after slips in April 2017 saw State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge close indefinitely.
NZTA’s proposal was for $4.30 per trip for light vehicles and $8.60 for heavy vehicles, with the money making a positive contribution to recouping project costs.
Hundreds of people have attended a public meeting in Woodville amid growing opposition to an NZTA proposal for tolling the replacement route for the slip-damaged Manawatū Gorge road. (Source: 1News)
During the charged meeting at Woodville Stadium, residents expressed concerns they were barely scraping by due to the current living costs, rates rises, and low wages, with many people on the minimum rate.
Tararua District Mayor Tracey Collis called the proposal “a kick in the guts to the community”.
“In the cost of living crisis, we simply do not have the money.”
Local councillor Scott Gilmore added that there needed to be “a stop to this ridiculous proposal”.
Chants of ‘Toll-free Tararua’ rang out as a question and answer session got underway with local National MPs and NZTA.
‘A road of great hope’
Collis said in a statement yesterday that people travelling to Palmerston North for study or work would have to pay $43 more a week under the proposal.
“The announcement to potentially toll our replacement road Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū-Tararua Highway was a bolt out of the blue for many with the proposed tolls amongst the highest in the country,” Collis said.
Collis said there were several factors behind community opposition to tolling.
“This is fundamentally different from other proposed toll roads, which are new builds. The toll proposal does not fully acknowledge the unique context of this project, where we are replacing vital infrastructure that has been lost.”
She also said tolling was not part of the original business case for the project and, if residents ended up avoiding the road due to tolling costs, it would not achieve its goal of being a safe and efficient route.
“This was a road of great hope for our district with the growth that it promised. What good is it to our district to have a wonderful safe new highway that few can afford to use?”
NZTA said it assessed the suitability of the Manawatū-Tararua Highway as a tolled road following the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport earlier this year, which introduced a new expectation for the agency to consider tolling to support construction and maintenance of all new roads.
Tolling assessments are designed to analyse tolling feasibility, including how a potential toll road might interact with the wider transport network, the agency said.
The meeting tonight is being held at Woodville Stadium.