Drive to get Northland roads right

Drive to get Nor thland roads right

Northland Transportation Alliance (NTA) has announced a record year of delivering significant roading improvements throughout Northland.

Major investment on Northland’s Council owned transport infrastructure was made through a combination of Council contributions, Waka Kotahi (NZTA) subsidies and Central Government funding.

More than $140 million was spent on Northland’s Council transportation networks across Kaipara, Whangarei and Far North Districts, and Northland Regional Council’s Public Transport activities, between July 2020 and June 2021.

This equated to spending over 95% of the available budgets, a 50% increase compared to 2019/2020 and is in addition to separate investment by Waka Kotahi on the Northland State Highway network.

A breakdown of the investment shows almost $52 million was spent within the Whangarei District Council catchment, $29.7 million in Kaipara District, over $57 million in the Far North, along with a further $5m by Northland Regional Council.

Half of the investment went towards improvements and upgrades on existing Northland Council roading assets, including 270kms of road reseals, 46 new footpaths, 43 individual safety improvement projects and the installation of 340 new streetlight columns.

Also completed was 16.5km of seal extensions in the Far North and 5.5km in the Whangarei District. A further 10km is planned for KDC, 11km for FNDC and at least 4km across WDC.

Twelve Far North schools and Marae benefitted from a sealing programme which saw 180 metre to 340 metre strips of seal laid to remove the ongoing nuisance of dust for locals. Among these rural areas were Omanaia, Umawera and Waima schools.

A further $70m was invested maintaining and operating Northland’s Council transportation networks through a combination of road inspections, grading, fixing potholes, seal repairs, water tabling, public transport operations, road safety promotion and operating streetlights and traffic lights.

And while NTA General Manager Calvin Thomas acknowledges there is a long way to go to get Northland’s roads right, he says his team is making strong progress.

In fact, they have been working to further develop the multi-year programmes with defined asset strategies to create a more sustainable roading network which locals should be much happier with.

“The past year was unique for many reasons with the funding model through a combination of some projects rolled over due to the first Covid lockdown and provision of Central Government stimulus funding,”says Mr Thomas.

“We expect to spend around $110-$120 million per year on Council transportation activities in Northland between now and June 2024.

“The reality for Northland is that providing consistent outcomes across Northland’s nearly 6,000km of local roading network, of which 3,500km is unsealed, is challenging. That’s why we are really focussed on utilising the available funds as effectively as we can, which is always a balancing act.

“I am really encouraged by the progress and confident that improvements will continue to be made to Northland’s transport infrastructure.”

Within the success of completing additional roading upgrades throughout 2020/2021, was a collaborative effort which saw 103 Northlanders recruited into fulltime transport, roading and arborist related roles.

“Our Te Tai Tokerau Worker Redeployment programme was a $9.32 million collaboration between Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit, Northland’s Councils and Waka Kotahi NZTA.

“There was strong input from the four Northland Councils, Waka Kotahi NZTA, MBIE, MSD, Te Puni Kōkiri, Northland Inc and 54% of the funded work went to locally owned contractors, with 15% of those Maori and Pacifica owned businesses who were awarded $1.38m under the programme.

“Many of the employees have re-trained into new careers and most achieved a minimum of Level 2 qualifications. It was a great success and contributed to us completing a substantially higher workload so that is pleasing.”

Mr Thomas says with summer looming, roading improvements throughout Northland will increase.

Included in this will be targeted unsealed road maintenance in preparation for the drier summer months, with heavy metaling and drainage works on selected priority road sections.

“Every material we put on unsealed roads is naturally sourced from local quarries which operate under strict Northland Regional Council resource consent conditions. While it may look different, the focus is on blending the right aggregates to produce a more durable and consistent unsealed roading network.

“We are looking forward to working more closely with our communities and will be sharing a lot more information about upcoming projects in months to come, so people are aware of just what is happening, when and where, on Northland’s Council transport networks.”

NOTE:

The Northland Transportation Alliance (NTA) was formed in 2016 and is a partnership between local government and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to deliver joined up services for Council owned roading, and transportation related activities, in Northland.

The NTA is a collaboration between Kaipara District Council, Whangarei District Council, Far North District Council, Northland Regional Council, with the support of Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. The Alliance has combined staff, services and resources for Council owned roading and transportation in Northland to improve consistency and services for all Northland road users.

The NTA co-ordinates staff and resources to benefit all Northland transport system users in the most effective way possible. By combining staff and resources the NTA and its funding partners can improve the consistency of services and efficiencies of scale e.g. specialist skills and purchasing power.

More than 70 staff from FNDC, KDC, WDC and NRC work together within the NTA, with the majority based in offices in Whangarei or Kaikohe but travelling extensively throughout Northland, working towards a vision of collectively creating better, safer and more accessible journeys across Northland.

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