James Smith: General Manager of Policy and Advocacy at the National Road Carriers Association on the Brynderwyns reopening from next week

Freight operators are thrilled they can deliver goods to Northland a lot faster from next week. 

State Highway 1 over the Brynderwyns will reopen to two-way traffic from 11.59pm next Wednesday, just in time for Matariki weekend. 

The Transport Agency says additional space has been created so crews can work on repairs without lengthy closures. 

James Smith, General Manager of Policy and Advocacy at the National Road Carriers Association, told Mike Hosking that it's important to note that this repair only gives them another seven years of the Brynderwyns, and then the whole lots coming down. 

He said that what they're saying is that while that fix is in place, let's get on with building the diversion as fast as they can, because if the previous government had continued with it, it would’ve been just about done by this point. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Going Saga of the Brindeau and Hills gets a positive
update for Marto Riqi weekend in Zta. They're in the
process of finishing the remainder of those closure works. They
will reopen the road this Wednesday. James Smith is with
the National Road Carrier's Union. James Morning, Good morning, Mike.
You'll be looking forward to it. The thing I've always
found a bit weird as they open it for Marto
Rican and I get why that is, and that's for cars,
whereas you guys have had to do the back road

(00:21):
for all that long. Do you reckon there's enough emphasis
on trucks and you know, getting stuff to market in
this country or not.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
No, not not amongst the general public. But n ZTA
get it. And I mean they've been working as hard
as I can to get this thing repaired and ready
for to get the trucks back where they need to
be on the state highway.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
How bad has it been in terms of the diversion.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, it's been. It's been difficult because I mean effectively
you're putting putting trucks on back onto local roads where
you know, there's state highways for that sort of thing.
So it has provided increased cost to operators, especially those
that are operating on higher mess because they've had quite
a significant diversion that they have to go to Dargable

(01:11):
to get one array, which is not great.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Is the fix. So they've done two fixes. One they
thought they had it, then it fell over again, and
so the fix this time is that they've got some
room on the side. Should it go again to keep
going with the traffic and then fix it on the side.
Should they have done that in the first place, Well,
that's what.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
They were attempting to do, so then the slip came down.
So this is important to note that this repair that
they've done really only gives us another seven years in
the brand doings, and then the whole lot's coming down.
So what we're sort of saying is is, Okay, we've
got the fix under wave that keeps it going for
seven years, but let's get on with straight as fast

(01:51):
as we can building that diversion. Because if the previous
government had have actually continued and done the diversion, the
darn thing would have been just about it.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Understand, I mean you will have been on that road north.
I mean that that is a world class road. And
then all of a sudden bingo the roundabouts there and
it stops, and you think, why the hell didn't they
just carry on?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And that's just a very good example of the stop start,
stop start. That the political football that is infrastructure in
New Zealand, and that's just got to stop. We're going
to have a fifty year plan. We just got to
crack on and get it done.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
The unfairness and for people listening around the country, you
don't know that particular part of the world. I mean,
you can't have a whole region just cut off in
a third world goat track sort of way, can you.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
No, you can't. And in North London's Northunder's suffered from
decades of under investment and transport infrastructure, and you've got
other parts of the country that are similarly face you
look at the East coast of the North Island which
are absolutely totally reliant on a reliable stay high anywhere.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, let's opened, let's hope something good happens as martin
Rica weekend unless people get up to Northland and spend
a bit of money in that particular part of the world.
James appreciate it. General Manager of Policy and Advocacy at
the National Road Carriers Union.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
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