Tauranga tolls: Takitimu Northern Link costs should not ‘burden’ city, residents say

Under the proposal submitted for public consultation, light-duty motorists using the first stage route would be charged between $2.10 and $3.10 per use, depending on the time of day, while heavy-duty vehicles would pay between $4.20 and $6.20.

Proposed tolls for stage two, which would complete the route from Ōmokoroa to Tauranga, will increase to a maximum of $4.10 for light vehicles and $8.20 for heavy vehicles during peak hours.

Ōmokoroa Community Council member Chris Dever has no problem with the tolls but said he thought the proposed prices were “excessive”.

Travelling from his home in Ōmokoroa to Tauranga, including fuel, would cost him about $16 for the 20km journey.

“It shouldn’t be a big amount of money, it should just be a small gift every time you use the road.”

Dever also questioned the fairness of the measure, as Transmission Gully in Wellington and the Waikato Expressway were not tolled.

“The fact that three of New Zealand’s four toll roads are all in the Bay of Plenty seems grossly unfair.”

Takitimu Drive and the Tauranga Eastern Link (TEL) are both tolled, as is Auckland’s Northern Gateway.

Katikati/Waihī Beach councillor Rodney Joyce said NZTA needed to be careful not to overcharge people using the road.

If too many vehicles continued to use the current road – the gridlocked State Highway 2 – it would end up costing taxpayers dearly in maintenance costs.

“It will become a cost to taxpayers if the system is overused.”

The region also needs more than the LNP to address its congestion and infrastructure deficit, he said.

Smartgrowth Steering Group representative Riki Nelson said the LNP would be a nationally significant route and the “burden” of funding it should not fall solely on the Western Bay of Plenty.

“Our communities do not appreciate this government placing this burden on our local communities, on all the people who live and work, not just in Tauranga, but across our region.”

People were already struggling because of a lack of investment in infrastructure for decades, said Nelson, who was also a member of NZTA’s North Tauranga iwi advisory group.

The Port of Tauranga, New Zealand’s largest port, was a “significant asset” and Nelson said the region contributed enough to the national economy to justify infrastructure investment.

Ōmokoroa resident Kevin Payne said the road should be tolled.

“Why should someone in Whangarei or Dunedin spend their income on a road where 90% of the users come from that district?

“It’s not fair, it’s not equitable.”

Payne is retired but travels to Tauranga three days a week to care for his grandchildren.

Jason Ponder said people already paid enough in fuel taxes and road user fees so adding extra costs was not acceptable.

The Whakamārama resident owns a construction business and commutes to Tauranga up to three times a day.

Tolls made transportation unaffordable, so Ponder simply used the existing highway.

“The idea behind building this road is to reduce congestion and in doing so it must be affordable.

“Taxing people through tolls is just ridiculous.”

NZTA’s senior manager of project services, Jo Wilton, said the government’s transport policy statement introduced an expectation that NZTA would consider charging for the maintenance of all new roads, including roads of national significance.

The LNP should help shift regional traffic and freight away from local roads, she said.

Modelling for 2031 showed that 34,000 vehicles could travel between Tauranga and Ōmokoroa each day using both the LNP and the existing state highway.

The annual population increase is 2 to 3 percent and the transportation system needs investment to accommodate this growth, she said.

Funding for the first stage has been secured, but the road toll would cover maintenance costs and support construction of the second stage.

It also generated revenue to support other major infrastructure projects, she said.

If people were travelling on the LNP and then onto Takitimu Drive or Tauranga Eastern Link, they would pay the individual toll for each road, Wilton said.

Tolls would be removed when the cost of the road was recovered.

For Takitimu Drive, the toll was to be removed in 2031 and the TEL in 2049. It was proposed that the TNL would be tolled for 35 years.

The proposed toll rates are intended to generate sufficient revenue over the life of the road to recover construction costs and contribute to maintenance and operations, Wilton said.

The public consultation on tolls closes at 5pm on 27 October. Submissions can be made via the NZTA website.

The agency is also consulting on introducing tolls on two new highways in the lower North Island.

Proposed tolls on the Takitimu North link

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