The Government has announced its new policies on road tolls, with legislation to be introduced next year.
Of importance to Hawke’s Bay is that now existing roads can be tolled if they gain capacity or are extended by new projects.
“These reforms ensure that those who benefit from new and improved roads share in the cost of building them, making it possible to deliver infrastructure sooner and more efficiently. The Government is taking a user-pays approach, which optimises toll revenues to build the modern roading infrastructure, which will improve economic productivity by helping Kiwis get to where they want to go quickly and safely,” said Transportation Minister Simeon Brown.
Previously Minister Brown set an expectation that all of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s (NZTA) new Roads of National Significance be considered for tolling. The HB Expressway is designated as such.
So the stage is set. When those new lanes open, users will face a toll.
Why delay? Treat it as a congestion fee. Whatever the time savings from adding lanes might be, the result will be more usage and more pollution. But why not put the ‘polluter pays’ principle into practice now?
Moreover, preparation work is already underway — early ground improvement work has started on Stage 1, including building up the land alongside the Kennedy Road offramp, and it was announced this week that the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approved funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.
What’s your view on tolling?
Traffic will be affected from this point on as works proceeds on the Expressway. To stay up to date with the project, visit: www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/sh2-hawkes-bay-expressway.
No way as this is progress to solve the unemployment so u wait in taxes to get benefits as 300, 678 people r on a additive to income. Also I do not have 20 cents.as oil should come out of NZ to make money. Never bloody electric cars in my life.
I guess they have to be paid for someway. I do agree with a pollution tax varied for different types of vehicles, maybe attached to registration costs, as long as it’s kept as low as possible. Government should not have given those ridiculous tax cuts which don’t filter down to lowest incomes.
The way tolls are structured, with heavy vehicles paying about twice what cars will, is another subsidy of the road freight industry by car owners. There is also a real danger that we will see two classes of roads. There will be reasonably well maintained toll roads while the rest of the network decays.
I also cannot see how taking a few minutes off a journey will aid productivity. The problem we have is that we have a low skilled workforce on low wages. This has been deliberate government policy.
You forget Trucks already pay “Road User Charges” (RUC) and pay their way already.
No they dont, they cause far more damage compared to what they pay.
I would guess that toll roads will push people to use other routes. This will increase congestion and add to pollution? I can only think of one toll road in the uk, near Birmingham. I wonder why they haven’t implemented more toll roads? I bet it has something to do with the reasons I suggested here.
Cancel the landlord tax breaks and put the $2.9b towards the roads – should cover much of the roading costs for a few years. Or they could maybe start up a capital gains tax that would keep infrastructure funded for a decade or so – but that would really upset their voter base wouldn’t it – so that’s out of the question – can’t have our PM paying tax on sale of his investment properties even though he’s wealthy and sorted!
Wouldn’t want to be living in Clive – people will just start using that way as some probably can’t afford tolls.
People already go through Clive in preference to the “expressly slow” way which seems so often to have traffic jams and as long as the tolls are kept to an affordable level it will probably be cheaper than going the marginally longer way round through Clive if you take the petrol etc costs into consideration
“These reforms ensure that those who benefit from new and improved roads share in the cost of building them, making it possible to deliver infrastructure sooner and more efficiently. The Government is taking a user-pays approach, which optimises toll revenues to build the modern roading infrastructure, which will improve economic productivity by helping Kiwis get to where they want to go quickly and safely,” said Transportation Minister Simeon Brown.
Let us just remind ourselves that “we” the people have already paid for the construction of the expressway as well as for the salaries of those who thought this was all a great idea to help with congestion and pollution. It is a great idea to have and maintain our roads, but the government’s bad planning and poor foresight will always land back on the people as the cost solution through tolls, additional tax or price increases. Additional capital gains tax is not the go-to solution either, some capital gains are already taxed as income or trading profits which ultimately has a flow-on effect on consumer goods and service costs increasing e.g.: groceries and fuel. The government is plugging up the leaks from decades of poor decision-making and poor planning and if this is the great plan how do these new road developments coincide with the fifteen-minute city restrictions voted in by most councils around NZ (as in the UK and other countries) or has that grandiose idea been put on the back burner? A user-pays approach is and has always been the government’s go plan, there is no innovation there! This approach does not help economic growth only innovation will and until innovation through investment and entrepreneurship is supported and developed then the people will pay until the people can’t pay anymore.
Tolls for all auckland and wellington expressways.Picking on the country towns that have been neglected for years and dont forget us losing our hospital and police cells in napier. Bring on the new labour govt.trouble is they are no better.
It wont be any better, theyre all out of touch with reality.
The Napier – Hastings Expressway for us locals is more like a suburban Road.
where many of us travel inter- city several times a day, just like going from one suburb to another. Huge numbers of people commute from City to City daily so I cannot support a toll on this road.
From a State Highway perspective, you could capture traffic entering the expressway prior to Bay View and Paki Paki with some smart Technology.
Just another revenue earner to line the pockets of ‘certain’ individuals!
Where would Auckland be without the Harbour Bridge which was Tolled, I vividly remember paying 20c each trip over it, far far cheaper than the long way around North Harbour, also when we lived in Queensland there were Toll roads all over the place, I have no problems with toll roads, don’t want to pay tolls don’t use the roads!! simple really!
more and more tax…. appears to be the only answer our Governments have. Yet Government have more money than they have every had so where does all our tax go as it appears hospitals, teachers, nurses, doctors, local police and building NZ roads have become irrelevant to all Govt. The stats tell us this!
Logic tells us Government is unaffordable and has to be reined in.
The more they take the less we have.