Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury CEO says the second bridge being built in Ashburton is a lifeline for the South Island

Ashburton's incoming second bridge is being viewed as an economic lifeline for the South Island. 

Work on the project will begin in 2026. 

The Government will pay for its construction while the district council will foot the bill for the joining road. 

Business Canterbury Chief Executive Leeann Watson says the current bridge has been washed away multiple times. 

She told Heather du Plessis-Allan that significant volumes of freight pass through Ashburton daily. 

Watson says it goes up to the Christchurch Airport and Lyttelton Port, so a bridge closure makes things difficult for businesses. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Business. Canterbury's chief executively Anne Watson is with us now, Haley, Anne, Hey, Heather.
Now this is good news. I mean for any place
getting a second of anything. This is fantastic news, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh? Absolutely, And as you've said, you know, this has
been a very long awaited second bridge. So getting that confirmation,
Yestad of the government funding has been really welcomed right
across not only the local Ashburton business community, I'm sure,
but right across Canterbury and infect the South Island because
it's a really important piece of infrastructure.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Yeah. And for an important piece of infrastructure, how many
times has it been washed away lately? Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, certainly at least two or three times that I
know of, the latest back in twenty twenty three. And
the effect that that has on you know, as I say,
not only the South Island, sorry the Ashburton, but the
whole of the South Island is pretty significant. So it
is a bit of a lifeline to get not only
people in and out of Ashburton, but of course also

(00:57):
freight and there's a significant volume of freight that was
across that bridge every day heading up to you know,
both CHRISTI che Port and the Littleton Port and so
it has a significant impact right across the whole business
community when it is you know unavailable.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, when bridge number one goes down and the freight
can't get across, what's the alternative?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
So there is another bridge, but it's about twenty seven
kilometers away, So of course you know that's a significant
diversion and you know that costs money, it cost time,
and it's just a real inconvenience. But you know, even
you know, if you're traveling through Ashbooton, you know you
can be stuck waiting to get across that bridge for
sort of anywhere between you know, sort of half an
hour to an hour in peak time. And you know,

(01:40):
when you think about that from a business perspective, if
you've got you know, freight being moved you know daily,
you know that is a significant extra cost and delay
to move freight across that sort of main state highway.
So yeah, this is a really significant announcement and you know,
take my head off to the local leaders, the likes
of you know, mere Neil Brown, you know who has

(02:01):
been campaigning, as to say, for a couple of decades
to get this piece of infrastructure underway. So it's really
great to see that the government have actually finally made
that commitment. Lee.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
And by the way, while I've got you that GDP
figure out yesterday, did that surprise.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
You, Yeah, it was pretty disappointing. You know, we've certainly
seen some challenges out there for many sectors. But what
it did surprise me, I guess is we've just recently
also done our own quarterly business survey and it was
in contrast to that because actually what we're seeing is
record high levels of optimism heading into twenty twenty five.

(02:36):
So it was a bit concerning. But I think, you know,
we are certainly seeing some real strong signals from cannery
businesses about the future, not only in terms of the economy,
but also in terms of their own performance and starting
to just see a bit more commitment and confidence in
investing in new staff, new plant and equipment. It's not
coming up quite as fast as what we would like,

(02:59):
So yeah, we're a little concern to see that, but
you know, cannery business seemed to be bucking the trend
a little bit. Yeah, so let's hope that that continued.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Well, you are doing very well as originally and thanks
very much, really appreciate the Green Shoots and news there.
That's Leanne Watson, Business Canterbury Chief Executive. You're so on
this a case. So yesterday the number, I mean, Jesus, well,
we're expecting what zero point four percent was kind of
or zero point two percent depends on where you sat,
but it was definitely towards the zero, not towards the one.
So when it came in at Won that was something

(03:27):
of a shock. But what was also equally a shot
was the revision of the Q two data, which we
were told was oh, well, yeah it had gone back
with zero point two percent. Suddenly it's one point one percent.
What's going on at Stats New Zealand because yesterday I
was just telling you Stats New Zealand were like, a, yeah,
Wellington lost twenty thousand workers. Yeah oopsno sorry two two

(03:47):
thousand Yeah sorry, slight, slight revision in the order of
magnitude of ten times. And then they do basically the
same thing with the GDP data, where they're like, it's
just a little decline. No, but lord, it's a massive decline.
How what's going on? Steps Come on, guys

Speaker 2 (04:02):
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