Tempers are fraying in the Bay of Plenty because of the state of State Highway 2 between Tauranga and Katikati. 

As the bay continues to boom and the population grows the improvements to the road have failed to keep up prompting protestors to start taking action.

They call the road the worst stretch of roading in New Zealand and their campaign is called Fix Our Bloody Road. In the weekend they blocked a bridge to protest and today they’ve launched a petition calling for a moratorium on all development of housing alongside the road until something is done.

Now I know the road very well, I’ve been driving it for a quarter of a century. It’s not the worst road in New Zealand but it’s definitely operating beyond it’s capacity. And that capacity is about to be stretched even more.

The area that the road serves is about to boom with housing construction the way Papamoa boomed 20 years. 43,000 extra houses are needed in the Bay over the next 30 years and Northward development is the most obvious. The road is hopelessly out of date.

It’s been the next to do on roading lists for a generation. A tender process for roadwork started in February, only to be mothballed with the change of Government. Simon Bridges was part of the protest in the weekend which I found a little rich since he had the opportunity to do more in the last government. 

Phil Twyford has referred the issue to NZTA. Now while that’s frustrating it, in a strange way, is probably the right thing to do, because I’m sick and tired of politicians thinking they can meddle in roading infrastructure decisions.

These sorts of issues should be beyond political grandstanding and pork barrelling. They are jobs that need doing despite the colour of the government. The so-called holiday highway north of Auckland is a classic. It’s been on and off and too big and too small depending on the whims of politicians.

Auckland’s East West link, which was due to be the most expensive piece of roading in the world was another strange farce.

While State Highway 2 is a nightmare it has real competition from State Highway 16 to Kumeu and Helensville. The only reason it hasn’t become a deathtrap is that drivers have accepted it’s not the open road and you can only go at 70 or 80k.

The real problem with SH 16 is that when the housing crisis really hit home government’s created special housing areas throughout the area that road services. The explosion in houses around Riverhead has to be seen to be believed and these new suburbs are feeding into a road that in places remains just 2 lanes. Who the hell is deciding to build houses where there are no roads or public transport. It just beggars belief.

I know I’ve said it before and now I’ll say it again. The future development on New Zealand infrastructure needs to be in the hands of people who know what they’re doing and think 30 years in the future and those people are definitely not politicians.