New Zealand ponders tolling new major roads

Roads of National Significance may get alternative funding to speed their completion
By David Arminas July 22, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
Major roads are 'critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving New Zealand’s land transport network' (© Adwo | Dreamstime.com)

New Zealand transport minister Simeon Brown is considering tolling seven new “Roads of National Significance” if that would speed their completion.

Media reports noted that NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) said procurement and construction of the roads could start within the next three years.

The projects are Belfast-to-Pegasus, the Hawke’s Bay Expressway, SH1 Cambridge-to-Piarere, State Highway 29 Tauriko, Takitimu North Link Stage 2, Mill Road and Warkworth-to-Wellsford.

Brown reportedly said more information about completion times and costs would be known by the end of September. He noted that tolling is a good method for ensuring the roads get sufficient funding for completion. “So where NZTA recommends a toll, we will support tolling of that infrastructure to pay for it. It is a user-pays approach,” he said.

The government recently announced it had prioritised 17 Roads of National Significance that it wants to completed as soon as possible. They were highlighted in the government's recent Policy Statement on Land Transport but the cost of completion remains uncertain, according to media reports. 

The government has repeatedly said it would aim to use alternative revenue options where possible, including public-private partnerships, and user-pays options like road tolling, equity finance schemes and value capture.

NZTA already operates three toll roads: the Northern Gateway Toll Road north of Auckland, the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road and the Takitimu Drive Toll Road, both in Tauranga.

Nick Leggett, chief executive of Infrastructure New Zealand – a membership organisation for the transport sector - has come out in favour of tolling. He said Roads of National Significance are much needed for the country’s economic and social development.

“Safe and efficient four-lane and grade-separated highways are not cheap, yet they are a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving New Zealand’s land transport network,” said Leggett. “Tolling is the way to go to help deliver these new highway projects… We cannot kick the can down the road any longer.”

Charging, Tolling & RUC

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Infrastructure investors line up for Indiana toll road
    October 16, 2014
    According to a report by Reuters, some of the world's largest pension funds and infrastructure investors are forming consortia to bid for the operator of an Indiana toll road that filed for bankruptcy last month. Indiana agreed in 2006 to lease the 253 kilometre highway, billed as the Main Street of the Midwest, for 75 years in return for US$3.8 billion. It stretches across the northernmost part of Indiana from Ohio to Illinois, linking Chicago with the largest cities on the eastern seaboard. While f
    Read More
  • Mexico developing highway projects
    August 29, 2014
    Mexico's transport and communications ministry, SCT, is developing 46 highway projects, worth US$12.3 billion, to be completed by 2018. "We have 28 highways under construction, eight were recently finished, and construction on an additional seven highways will start before the end of the year, said SCT minister Gerardo Ruiz, during the launch of construction of the Cardel-Poza Rica highway. A consortium led by Mota-Engil won a 30-year concession for the 129 kilometre Cardel-Poza Rica highway concessi
    Read More
  • ASECAP widens its influence and fosters debate in Dubrovnik
    August 5, 2013
    Jason Barnes reports from the ASECAP Days 2013 event, which took place in Dubrovnik. ASECAP, the European tolling association held its 41st annual Study and Information Days event in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which attracted more than 200 figures from the road infrastructure sector in Europe and beyond. A series of presentations over two days brought attendees up to date with developments in a variety of policy and technology fields and discussed a number of developing and new topics, such as GNSS-based tolling a
    Read More
  • Kenya plans road toll tenders
    March 25, 2015
    Kenya plans to start tendering in May for toll-road contracts estimated by the government to be worth $2 billion to improve the efficiency of the East African nation’s biggest commercial routes, according to Bloomberg. The contracts will be in addition to the 45 deals worth about US$3.2 billion that the government will start awarding as early as next week, to double the nation’s paved-road network through an annuity program. The government is planning to introduce five toll projects covering about 800 kilom
    Read More

Highlighted Content