Maintaining existing infrastructure is just as import as new projects

An article in The Press today resonated with me in ways I did not expect. Henry Cooke, writes of how the Infrastructure Commission has convinced politicians to stop with shiny new projects.

Politicians take pride in enabling new infrastructure. Projects that come with hefty price tags, and the opportunity to be photographed cutting the ribbon. Whilst looking great for the media, it ignores a simple reality about infrastructure.

Infrastructure will work just fine if it was given its due maintenance. Hospitals, power stations, schools, etc all have ongoing maintenance costs. Rather than a whole new item being constructed, retrofitting it could do the job just as well.

Smaller projects work too

Not all projects need to be big. There are several in the Canterbury and West Coast area that are not big on a national scale, but which would bring significant benefits:

• The Hurunui River in north Canterbury has a single one lane bridge taking all of the State Highway 1 traffic over it
• The Rakaia River State Highway 1 bridge is long and narrow – it has not kept up with evolving vehicle dimensions; it is very unsafe for cyclists and not any better for larger vehicles, widening it by a metre on each side would definitely ease the risk of a major accident
• Relocating Franz Josef – a town sitting atop the Alpine Fault and right next to an active geomorphologically dynamic flood plain; a race against the fault to relocate a community on relatively friendly terms and not in the aftermath of a magnitude 8.0(+) earthquake
• In my local electorate, Ilam there is a case for another high school, as the existing ones are full or close to absolute capacity – my old high school had 2,200 students plus staff when I left at the end of 1999, now has 2,700 students and limited capacity to expand

A North Island bias

I get frustrated with the lack of investment in southern infrastructure projects. Because of this I have come to recognise the value of smaller more community oriented projects – ones that directly help the local community, as opposed to being of more strategic national value. One example is Dunedin getting a new hospital, that looks great and is long overdue. The locals clearly appreciated it when they sent 35,000 of their number to protest a cut in the project shortly after the current Government took power.

Another example that is more local, would be investing in the reinstatement of a passenger and/or freight ferry between Lyttelton and Wellington. It would be an overnight service and would provide another transport option for when Cook Strait ferries are unable to run. The major changes would be a ferry berthing wharf in Lyttelton and terminal – the infrastructure in Wellington already exists. Not only would it create construction jobs here, it would also create ongoing jobs in both Wellington and Lyttelton associated with running the ferry.

But are politicians willing to look past the blingiest projects to enable less obvious ones that could be just as rewarding?