Duelling Brynderwyns priorities as election looms

What to do about the Brynderwyn Hills roading challenges may become a political football, as the two major parties put up competing transport proposals and pledges ahead of the general election.

In its $24.8 billion transport package unveiled at the end of July, National identified the need for a new road bypassing the Brynderwyns as one of four priorities for funding already allocated in the 2023 Budget to the National Resilience Fund – a total of $6 billion over 10 years, to enhance long-term resilience in floodaffected regions.

The document noted intermittent closures of that stretch of State Highway 1 – including a flooding-induced closure in early February that lasted 83 days –and said that a bypass should be a priority to improve efficiency and resilience, supporting economic growth.

“This route is vital for communities and freight, connecting Whangārei and Auckland,” it said.

In a written response to a parliamentary question from National’s transport spokesperson, Simeon Brown, shortly after the February closure, then-Transport Minister Michael Wood said a 2018 Waka Kotahi business case for the Whangarei to Auckland corridor identified a longterm investment programme that included identifying and route-protecting a Brynderwyn bypass road.

Wood said further that a business case for the corridor between Port Marsden Highway and Te Hana, “including the long-term solution of bypassing the

Brynderwyn Hills”, would be considered for inclusion in Waka Kotahi’s 2024-2027 national land transport programme.

Labour has yet to unveil its transport policy, but on the same day as National’s Transport for the Future document was released, Woods’ successor David Parker and Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced $567 million in funding to Waka Kotahi for “immediate” remedial work on flood-affected highways in several parts of the country, including $14 million for work on SH1 through the Brynderwyns.

Their statement said the funding would come from the $6 billion National Resilience Plan announced in May’s Budget. Work on that stretch of road would include over-slip clearing and stabilisation, tree removal, rockfall and slip protection (walls and mesh), under-slip repairs, retaining wall building and repair, river and road edge scour repairs and rockfill, drainage clearing due to silt inundation, drainage repair and replacement, secondary flow-path repair and installation, pavement and seal repairs and replacement, silt and slash removal, and guard rail and barrier replacement.

Roads of national significance

The National Party’s document outlines plans to build 12 more “roads of national significance”, and its Brynderwyns bypass proposal forms part of a broader long-term vision of four-lane highways linking the major cities of the upper North Island, from Whangārei to Tauranga.

The first four stages of the plan include the