News this week that Horowhenua residents were “blindsided” by changes to plans for the Ōtaki to North of Levin (O2NL) highway project brought the topic of infrastructure planning back to mind.

From what I can tell – and I’ve spent far more time this week on the project website than I can realistically afford – there are three major changes to the plans since the preliminary designs were released more than three years ago (plus a handful of the “yeah, okay” variety). These would’ve been revealed to most locals at the NZTA’s O2NL drop-in sessions this month – except for the planned intersection at SH57/Tararua Road, changed from a separated interchange to a roundabout, which has been known about since December 2024.

To me, this is the ‘lesser’ of the three surprises. There were already two other roundabouts planned for the northern sections of the highway, and this one has been discussed in each monthly project update since December. If locals have only now realised a roundabout is being installed after that and six months of work at the site, I wonder how many care about the details of these major construction projects. Okay, I am being callous … There’s no doubt that local media would’ve reported on the works and that there is interest. But, as I said, this isn’t one of the big issues.

Those lie at either end of the 24km O2NL highway. At the northern – Levin – end, the 3km of highway between the O2NL/SH1 roundabout (splitting off the existing SH1 to Levin and the new highway) and the O2NL/SH57 roundabout has been reduced from four to two lanes. NZTA says traffic modelling shows four lanes on this section are not required in the medium to long term, but the design will be future-proofed to allow for four lanes should traffic volumes significantly increase.

At the southern end, where the new highway will join the Peka Peka to Ōtaki expressway, the connection to the existing SH1 originally included a northbound-offramp as well as a southbound on-ramp, which has now been binned. Traffic on the old SH1 wanting to head south from here will have to travel through Ōtaki and join the expressway at Ōtaki Gorge Road.

So where do the problems come in? First, the phrasing used. The SH57/Tararua roundabout: ‘cost-effective’, ‘smaller footprint’. O2NL/SH1 connection: ‘optimise the layout’, ‘future-proofed’. Southern connection: ‘minimised footprint’, ‘less earthworks’. You don’t have to have a civil engineer’s level of education to understand that these projects take far too long to get going while costs rise quickly (and have done especially in recent years). If those aren’t the reasons for the changes, I’ll eat my keyboard.

Yes, I understand New Zealand is a wee country with only so much in the kitty – but that leads to problem No.2. We’re told the Horowhenua district is an area of growth. And the entire Wellington Northern Corridor is intended to connect the region fully, making the movement of people and goods more expedient, efficient, safer and reliable, supporting economic transformation (NZTA’s words). So why stop short of doing a complete and proper job now?

In another five, 10 or 15 years’ time, when those additional two lanes do need to be installed at Levin and the earthmovers need to start up again at Ōtaki for that southbound connection, we know the costs will be higher, everyone will say “should’ve just done it at the start”, frustration will rise with works being undertaken on a ‘new’ road, and it risks being another example of short-term compromise to the detriment of long-term certitude.

Take care out there,

Gavin Myers
Editor