Darryn Fisher: Northland Chamber of Commerce chief executive says they're working to accelerate work on prioritised regional expressway

Excitement in Northland, as the Transport Minister gives the green light to a prioritised regional expressway.

Simeon Brown's agreed to accelerate delivery — letting NZTA move at pace on the route between Auckland and Whangarei.

Locals have been growing irritated following repetitive road closures on the Brynderwyns.

Northland Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Darryn Fisher told Ryan Bridge the projected opening date is unknown.

“I think there’s still some work to go on there as far as consents and obtaining land and business cases go, but as a community, we’re here to make sure we accelerate that as quickly as we can.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The government is accelerating work on a four lane expressway
from Auckland all the way up to fund there's already
the Poohoy to Welsford, beautiful stretch of road that is
in place now. It's been classed as a Road of
National Significance and is set to give better and safer
access to Northland, which is regularly cut off at the
Britain Durbins. Not cut off. You can go around, but

(00:20):
gosh it adds journey time, doesn't it. We're going to
go to Darren Fisher, now, the Chief executive of North Chamber.
Good morning Darren. You're obviously excited about this, but are
you skeptical about the date because we haven't got one yet?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Right, Yeah, good morning, right, obviously very excited here at
Northland that you know, we've heard this, we've heard this
before and getting a digger bucket in the ground is
probably the second most important thing that's ever happened in
north And I'd say.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Can you tell me what have they told you privately
as the government told you privately any dates?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
No, they haven't, And I think there's still some work
to go on there as far as consents and obtaining
land and business cases go, but as a as a community,
we're here to make sure we accelerate that as quickly
as we can.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
NCTA did resilience work on the brindurwins. Do you think
there was? It's resilient.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, I think the events of the weekend show us
that it's not. No, I think someone's relatively lucky that
they weren't killed in that extra slip that happened on
the weekend. And it's still very fragile, and you know,
we're still susceptible to being cut off. So no, in
the Papara Oakley Road, which is one of the diversion
roads you mentioned, that was also not up to scratch either.

(01:42):
So you know, there's a lot of work to do
to make sure that not only northern but all of
New Zealand benefits from this four lane highly.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Because in the meantime, because let's be honest, it's going
to take at least a decade you would say, wouln't
before anything, actually before we can actually drive on this thing.
So in the meantime, we're going to have this brindio
and open closed, open clothes, open clothes.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, that's what I would expect to see, right and
I think that's a fear assessment absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Do you have any idea of the economic benefit to
the region if they would have fall Lane to fag
to day? Has anyone put a number on it?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah? The Northern Corporate Group, you know, very nicely put
a business case together that shows significant growth for the region.
But I think it's a great opportunity for our population
to grow. And I think people take this current business
case and they say, oh, it's only two hundred thousand
people and it's a holiday highway. Well, you know that

(02:33):
couldn't be further from the truth. North and it's a
very strategic asset for all of New Zealand. And I
think our population will grow significantly on the back of
having a good connection to Auckland and that's our biggest
economic zone of New Zealand being Auckland and where it's
neighbor so everyone can benefit from this road.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Too, right, Darren, Thank you very much for your time.
Darren for shar the North Chamber Chief Executive with us
this morning.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
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Speaker 1 (02:59):
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