Tauranga City Council has welcomed the inclusion of three significant projects in the Government’s National Land Transport Policy (NTLP) announcement.
Mayor Mahé Drysdale says it’s great news for the city and the wider Western Bay of Plenty region that the Takitimu Northern Link and SH29 projects are earmarked for progressing in the three years covered by the policy statement.
“The inclusion of improvements to the 15th Avenue/Turret Road corridor is also key, because this work will address one of the city’s significant bottlenecks, which is currently impacting on network congestion in Tauranga,” he says.
Also welcomed was additional investment in network maintenance and resilience. “We don’t yet have the detail about how that investment will be applied, but extra spending which improves our transport network service and resilience would be a significant plus in helping us deal with increasing traffic flows and the impacts of climate change.”
Mahé says the Government’s focus on city and regional deals also has significant interest for Tauranga and the Western Bay. “The ability to work with the Government and agree our long-term priorities for infrastructure investment will provide the certainty local government needs to plan and put in place the financial arrangements to deliver local infrastructure. We hope to be one of the first five parties to be invited to do a deal.”