Ruapehu land transport budget up

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 15, Issue 689, 3 June 1997, Page 2

Ruapehu land transport budget up

The total budget allocated to District Land Transport in 1997/98 for the Ruapehu District Council is $6,496,000, an increase from $6,294,000 in the 1996/97 year. Under the heading of District Land Transport, which includes routine road maintenance, emergency work, safety projects and maintenance, bridge construction, pavement rehabilitation and sealing, the Ruapehu District Council' s 1997/98 Draft Annual Plan aims to achieve a number of objectives.

One of these is the completion of the rehabilitation contract on the Pipiriki Road to provide for the increase in logging traffic resulting from the harvesting of timber from the Waimarino Forest. A budget , of $2,311 ,000 was allocated to this work in the 1996/97 financial year. Another is the completion of the seal extension contract on the Pipiriki Road • to allow for the increased logging traffic and for which a budget of $ 1 ,7 82,000 was provided last year. The budget for the 1997/ 98 year includes $46,000 to allow for the continuing

upgrade of Rimu Street and Tyne Street in Ohakune. This project is linked to the upgrading of the water main under those streets. Transport review In an article in Wellington' s Dominion outlining the government' s futur-e transport reform issues, traffic growth was highlighted as putting paris of the country's roads network under pressure. Not only in Auckland but in rural areas where "as forests mature ... lightly built rural roads face a huge increase in the number of heavy trucks using them." Also, dairying industry increases are putting more tankers on the roads and increased tourism means more buses. "Heavy vehicles like these cause infinitely more damage to the roads than cars or light trucks. A rule of thumb is that when the axle weight doubles, repair costs increase 16-fold," writes Ian Harris. "Some remote district councils spend up to 75 per cent of their rates on their roads, cities 8-12 per cent." "Since there is no direct relation between owning property and the extent to which a person uses the roads, such payments (rates) amount to a subsidy of truckies, bus operators, commercial travellers and others who use the roads a lot," he writes. If the government's review leads, as it may, to higher road user charges, transport fninister Jenny Shipley has said the government would insist that ratepayers receive the benefit through a reduction in rates (rather than what is feared — that councils would just spend the extra on something else).