Marlborough breaks transport plan away from Nelson Tasman

Flood damaged roads in Marlborough aren’t the only transport issues on the agenda for Marlborough’s council, a major state highway and potholes are too.

The Marlborough District Council has pieced together its draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP), a document it usually combines with Nelson and Tasman councils.

But the council had decided to undertake its own plan, given it has “different transport and investment priorities”, Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor says.

While the plan included the Marlborough Sounds Future Access Study, it was hoped the likes of Weld Pass would also get a look in for improvements too.

Nadine says the RLTP was an important document that underpinned Marlborough road and transport planning.

It confirmed the region’s investment priorities on both state highways and local roads.

“This RLTP is not surprisingly dominated by the Marlborough Sounds Future Access Study and the repairs and resilience work that this study has identified as needing to be done due to the major storm damage to our Sounds roads network,” she says.

The work was going to require significant investment over the next three years, she added.

“The RLTP also includes increased funding for maintenance to improve the overall level of service for motorists which means smoother roads, less potholes and greater safety.

“The vision of this RLTP is to have a safe and connected region that is liveable, accessible and sustainable.”

While the full draft plan would be available on April 11, in a statement, the council said the four most significant activities were the Sounds Access Study “stage 3” repairs, the Marlborough State Highway Resilience Programme, proposed state highway 2024-27 investment, and Marlborough Sounds resilience and marine infrastructure studies.

These projects had an estimated cost over $5m.

The Government had recently released the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Transport.

Transport minister Simeon Brown said over the next three years, investment of about $7 billion per year would prioritise economic growth and productivity, increased maintenance and resilience, safety, and value for money.

“It balances the need for investing in new projects, while ensuring our transport system is maintained to a high standard,” Brown said.

Regional Transport Committee chairperson councillor Scott Adams said it was good timing for Marlborough that the GPS could be factored into the region’s new land transport plan.

“The GPS has a much stronger focus on economic growth and productivity through delivery, sticking to core business and providing value for money. Marlborough’s priorities reflect this,” Scott said.

“With the cancellation of the iReX project, there is likely to be more trucks on the road, so we need to ensure Marlborough’s roads, particularly the vital freight route on SH1, are ready, reliable, and robust enough to cater for freight demands into the future.”

He said it was hoped that the Government’s focus on economic growth and freight efficiency could even see Marlborough’s “long wished-for” Weld Pass improvements back on the table.

The 2018 RLTP included a safety project for the Weld Pass due to the high crash rate and to improve the network performance, particularly for freight. However, in the 2021 RTLP the project had been put on hold.

The RLTP, required under the Land Transport Management Act 2008 (LTMA), was prepared by Marlborough Roads with NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) input.

Submissions on the draft RLTP would open on April 11, when the full plan would be released.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.