Editorial

I’ve just driven through the Victoria Park Tunnel. It’s opening day – as in opening to traffic – for the government’s first ‘road of national significance’ to be completed, so it’s a pretty significant milestone for our nation’s infrastructure.

New Zealand has always had roads that have been significant nationally, probably none more so than State Highway 1 – hence the priority number – which stretches from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

The history of roading in New Zealand makes for fascinating reading. Our first ‘roads’ adopted the walking trails created by Maori prior to the arrival of European settlers. They were essentially paths for carts drawn by horses or bullocks – the busiest ones were ‘sealed’ with crushed stone. Many linked the early ports to settlements – transport around the country was mostly carried out by sea.

Some of the inter-province roads came about as a result of the Maori Wars in the early 1800s – the Great South Road was built mainly by British soldiers so that troops could be moved from the Auckland settlement to counter the threat from the Waikato tribes. According to Te Ara, the encyclopaedia of New Zealand, workers had to be ready to swap their shovel for a rifle as they were vulnerable to attack from the thick forest and hills bordering the route.

It was our booming agricultural industry in the late 1800s that ramped up the development of roads, with farmers needing to move their produce to towns and to the ports for export.

Roads first became sealed in the early 1900s, but the nation’s roading network remained a mix of sealed and metalled roads until the 1950s when work accelerated to keep pace with the growth of urban centres. The first stretch of motorway opened in 1950 in Wellington and ran for just 5 km.

It was in 2008 that the National Party started bandying the ‘roads of national significance’ term around, and the programme – projected to cost $10 billion over 10 years – became an integral part of the first National Infrastructure Plan which was released in March 2010. Seven major routes were identified: Puhoi to Wellsford, north of Auckland; Auckland’s Western Ring Route, and the Victoria Park Tunnel; the Waikato Expressway; Tauranga’s Eastern Link; the Wellington Northern Corridor; and the Christchurch motorways.

Planning and/or construction work is now underway for all these routes – some are further ahead than others. The first sod was turned on the Victoria Park Tunnel on 9 November 2009. Just over two years on, northbound traffic is winding its way through Spaghetti Junction and down into the maw of the tunnel.

Merry Christmas everyone. Have a happy holiday – that is unless you’re building our next roads, in which case stay safe and well.

Until next time ...

Lynne Richardson Editor