This week I’ve had the pleasure of visiting our NRC members in Northland, staring with our Taipa event last night. While I always enjoy meeting with our members, what struck me was how subdued many were. Little wonder, with the prospect they are facing of yet another closure of State Highway 1 at the Brynderwyns. Many must be quietly wondering how much more their businesses can take.
To help address that, today I met with Northland leadership to discuss how the impact of a two month closure of the Brynderwyns could be managed. This included Whangarei Mayor Vince Cocurullio and Deputy Mayor Phil Halse, Northern Transportation Alliance Infrastructure Chair Simon Reid, along with local MPs Shane Reti and Grant McCullum and senior attendees from NZTA.
All in the room were deeply concerned about reducing the impacts to the people of Northland, and agreed that the repair work gets carried out with urgent priority in the dry season. Resilience funding was recognised as critical and needed to be rapidly made available for impacted transport operators and businesses. Detailed work is underway on the detour works to ensure they are as safe as possible for all road users. Also agreed was the need to get on urgently with business casing the four-lane bypass route, and not waiting for the business as usual cycle.
It was heartening to see the collective will in the room and agreement to support getting this done as quickly as possible. NRC will be doing all we can to make sure this happens.
Tonight I am off to our Whangarei NRC event at Keith Andrews, where I’m looking forward to catching up with a lot of our local members.
A special thank you to our partners Cal Isuzu without who’s support we would not be able to host the Taipa event, and to Keith Andrews for their support and hosting of the Whangarei event.
Justin
Justin Tighe-Umbers
CEO | National Road Carriers Assn
DDI: +64 9 636 2951
