Hospital and roading upgrades form the bulk of infrastructure projects the Government intends to start before Christmas.

The launch time for the projects - worth about $6 billion in total - was announced this morning by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and ministers Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop.

Work is already under way on the Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The projects include:

• Hutt Valley Te Whare Ahuru Acute Mental Health Unit, Wellington
• Kidz First and McIndoe Building Recladding, Middlemore Hospital, Auckland
• Linear Accelerators Replacement, Auckland City Hospital, Auckland
• Dunedin Hospital Sterile Services Unit, Dunedin
• Plant Health & Environment Capability Laboratory, Auckland
• Papakura District Court Interim Courthouse, Auckland
• Waihoehoe Road Upgrade, Auckland
• SH22 (Drury) Corridor Upgrade – interim works, Auckland
• SH29 Tauriko – Omanawa Bridge – Bay of Plenty
• SH1 Ōtaki to north of Levin, Horowhenua
• SH2 Melling Interchange, Wellington
• SH76 Brougham Street, Canterbury
• Rolleston Access Improvements – Package 1, Canterbury
• Parliamentary Library – south building and underground carpark seismic strengthening & rebuild, Wellington
• School property projects across the country including roll growth classrooms, upgrades and redevelopments & learning support satellite classrooms, administration blocks and gymnasiums.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop speak to media in Auckland. Photo / Raphael Franks

It’s understood several significant projects included in the $6b valuation have not been made public for commercial reasons.

Bishop as Infrastructure Minister cited data from the Infrastructure Commission that suggested the projects would create about 27,000 jobs.

“Importantly, this is just the start,” Bishop said in a statement.

“The National Infrastructure Pipeline, managed by the Infrastructure Commission, now shows planned future projects totalling $207b across central government, local government and the private sector.”

Work on the new Dunedin Hospital at the site of the former Cadbury's building.

Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett welcomed the announcement as “timely and much-needed stimulus”.

“We see this investment as the beginning of a much-needed pipeline of work, one that must endure beyond political cycles or short-term fiscal pressures.”

Leggett said a struggling construction industry could not afford another “false dawn”, citing a survey that found 65% of firms had reduced staff in the last year even as almost half expected more work in the coming year.

“This must be the start of something consistent. Our industry can’t switch capacity on and off like a tap. To deliver the scale and speed of infrastructure New Zealand needs, we must have a visible, credible and bipartisan pipeline.”