Regional Land Transport Plan Review

Consultation on our full Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) review ended on Friday 15 March. We received many submissions, and are grateful to all those who took part.

Following that consulation, we received a draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) 2024 with changes affecting some of our State Highway safety proposals. We were required to consult on these specific changes as they met the threshold for ‘significant change’ (more than $7M per project).

Submissions on this limited consultation closed at 4pm on Wednesday 29 May 2024. Thank you to all those who provided submissions.

What are the changes?

Changes in government priorities and funding have resulted in NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) amending some of the State Highway safety proposals in the draft RLTP. A limited public consultation was therefore required, on this specific issue only.

The changes relate to the State Highway Improvement Projects – Speed and Infrastructure Programme list found on page 105 of the draft RLTP document.

• Read the Regional Land Transport Plan 2021-2027 (2023 Review) (PDF 6.59 MB)

The projects in this list have been moved and will be delivered under different programmes within the RLTP, with their funding reallocated accordingly. However, two of these projects have had their combined funding reduced from $45m to $10m (2024/2027) These two projects related to the installation of median barriers on State Highway 1:

• Whangārei to Wellsford – Central Tranche 2 – Median Barrier
• Whangārei to Wellsford – Southern Tranche 2 – Median Barrier

The Government Policy Statement has indicated a changed approach to delivering safety projects. NZTA have therefore advised this funding will be redirected towards other State Highway safety initiatives including implementing lower cost safety retrofits in high-risk locations, and State Highway improvements including accelerating four-laning from Wellsford to Whangārei as part of the Roads of National Significance (RONS).