The Riverlink project would include a bridge across the Hutt River to improve traffic congestion in the city of Lower Hutt and improve resilience.
Photo: PARTNERS PROVIDED/ RIVERLINK
The major road works on state road 2 Lower Hutt, called Riverlink, will cost more than double what they originally said.
The cost of replacing Melling Bridge and the placement of a new exchange, and the associated works are now planned at $ 1.5 billion, the government said on Friday.
Its original budget was $ 700 million, although RNZ reported in late 2023, there were rumors that it would violate $ 1 billion, which were denied.
The government said on Friday that the highest cost occurred, despite finding $ 200 million in economics. He agreed in extra financing for the regional meaning road project.
“The project was undoubtedly challenging from the point of view of costs,” Chris Bishop Minister Chris Bishop said.
The widest program includes flood protection and “revitalization of the city”, with an approximate budget of $ 1.5 billion served for $ 1 billion from the New Zealand Transport Agency / Waka Kotahi (NZTA), $ 295 million from the Greater Wellington Regional Council and $ 180 million from Hutt City Council.
“It would start this year” and it would take six years to replace the old bridge, said Bishop – although dozens of homes and companies have been demolished in the last two years to give way to it.
However, NZTA would take more months to finish the design so that it could work as efficiently as possible, he added.
The Hutt City Council last year gave a date of beginning of February 2025.
The Regional Council called it would have to temporarily close the Melling train station to realocate it south, with extra parking, an “bitter pill” for passengers.
Chris Bishop.
Photo: RNZ / SAMUEL RILLSTONE
A new walking bridge and bicycle south of the exchange paid by the Hutt City Council was included in the project, ending doubts that it would not be funded.
Lower Hutt mayor Campbell Barry said that signaling the final agreements and securing financing is a “unique agreement in a generation” for the city.
“We’re ready to go,” Barry said in a statement on Friday.
The SH2 stretch on Melling carried 40,000 vehicles a day and faced years of road works and interruption.
A separate project to replace a large corroded sewage tube under the highway, at the risk of failing and vomiting effluent on the Te Awa Kairangi / Hutt River, was scheduled to close a track when the work begins soon.
Melling was “a serious bottleneck for traffic that decreases passengers and freight,” said Bishop.
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