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Regional summary

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Overview of the Marlborough regional transport system

Table 1: Key statistics on the Marlborough region (June 2007-July 2008)

	Marlborough region	New Zealand	Region as % of NZ
Population	44,500	4,268,500	1
Land area (km2)	12,500	275,400	5
Imports (gross tonne)1, 2	1.6 million	79.2 million	2
Exports (gross tonne)1, 2	1.7 million	73.4 million	2
Gross domestic product (GDP) ($)	1600 million	155,400 million	1
Passenger transport - bus - boardings	11,700	92,777,200	0
Vehicle kilometres travelled	300 million	40,200 million	1
Fatalities3	1	366	0
Serious injuries3	32	2553	1
Local roads - urban all (km)	180	17,298	1
Local roads - urban sealed (km)	179	16,956	1
Local roads - rural all (km)	1344	65,601	2
Local roads - rural sealed (km)	685	33,698	2
State highways - all (km)	645	10,906	6
State highways - sealed (km)	645	10,850	6
State highways - motorway (km)	-	172	-

Notes:

1. Indicative only - based on a ratio determined from a 2002 report on international and inter-regional freight movements.
2. Includes both international and inter-regional freight movements.
3. Safety data is for the year ending 2008.

Investment priorities

Given the GPS's requirement that the NZTA focus on activities that make the greatest contribution to New Zealand's economic growth and productivity, this NLTP prioritises activities that make the most significant contribution to one or more of:

• roads of national significance (RoNS) and local roads critical to RoNS
• key freight and tourism routes
• key urban arterials
• public transport initiatives to ease severe congestion
• 'model' urban walking and cycling communities¹
• making better use of the existing transport infrastructure
• optimising the existing capacity of, and service levels on, highly trafficked roads.

In all its investments, the NZTA maintains its longstanding focus on activities that make a significant contribution to one or more of:

• improving safety
• relieving severe urban congestion
• improving journey reliability and/or capacity on key routes
• network security and resilience on key routes
• completing key walking and cycling links to reduce congestion
• providing transport choice in large urban areas
• better public transport network and interchange capacity in large urban areas
• managing adverse environmental impacts from land transport
• public health outcomes
• long-term, integrated and coordinated planning.

It's important to note that safety, particularly reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries as a result of road crashes, has always been and remains a core NZTA priority.

For more information on NZTA investment priorities and assessment criteria refer to the national NLTP document.

¹Model communities aim to reduce congestion by providing user-friendly environments for walking and cycling.

Expected expenditure in Marlborough

Table 2: Expected expenditure in Marlborough

Marlborough	2009/12	% of total
Walking and cycling	-	0.0%
Transport planning	0.5	1.0%
Public transport improvements	-	0.0%
New & improved infrastructure for state highways	16.6	32.4%
New & improved infrastructure for local roads	2.1	4.0%
Public transport services	0.4	0.8%
Maintenance of state highways	10.2	19.8%
Renewal of state highways	7.9	15.3%
Maintenance of local roads	6.6	12.9%
Renewal of local roads	6.6	12.9%
Demand management & community programmes	0.4	0.8%
	51.3	100%

Note: includes R funds of $12m

State highway and local road operations, maintenance and renewal

The demands of Marlborough's primary and tourism sectors, together with localised population growth and safety concerns, place a heavy reliance on the region's state highway and local roading network. Maintenance, operations and renewal activities are therefore critical to ensure the network remains safe, resilient and secure. NZTA has approved a three-year allocation and expects organisations to manage the required maintenance, operations and renewal programmes including any changes in costs within that allocation.

Approximately $18 million of Marlborough's forecast expenditure in 2009-2012 will go into the maintenance and renewal of the region's state highway network, with a further $13.2 million allocated to maintenance and renewal activities on the local roading network. Key activities will include:

• resurfacing higher-trafficked urban areas in Blenheim with asphalt to keep roads in good condition
• installing guardrails and wire-rope barriers to improve safety for road users
• installing speed-activated warning signs in key locations to improve safety by letting drivers know when they should slow down.

State highway and local road improvements

Marlborough's state highway and local roading networks play a vital role in connecting the region's primary production areas and tourist destinations to key internal and external markets.

Approximately $16.6 million has been allocated to state highway improvements in the next three years, with a further $2.1 million allocated to local road improvements. These improvements focus on projects that improve route reliability and safety and deliver journey time savings.

Key projects likely to receive funding in the next three years include:

• SH1 Lions Back Hill safety improvements to improve alignment and passing opportunities tunities over the summit
• SH6 Sneiders Creek realignment, to realign several curves and widen the bridge
• SH1 Dashwood overbridge realignment to improve route security and safety.

Road Policing Programme

NLTP funding for New Zealand Police road policing activities in Marlborough is combined with that for Kaikoura, and totals approximately $3 million for 2009/10. This includes:

• approximately $2.6 million for strategic policing of the 'fatal five' road safety issues: speeding, drink driving, restraints, dangerous or careless driving and high-risk drivers
• approximately $350,000 for incident and emergency management, which includes crash attendance and investigation, and traffic management
• $15,000 for road policing resolutions, which include sanctions, prosecutions and court orders
• approximately $130,000 for community engagement in road policing, including police community services and school road safety education.

The detailed 2009/10 Road Policing Programme can be viewed on the New Zealand Police website at www.police.govt.nz/service/road/(external link), and the programmes for 2010/11 and 2011/12 will be published annually on this website once approved by the Minister of Transport.

Other activity classes

The NLTP allocates funding to a range of other activity classes, including:

• transport planning via the Marlborough Safe, Sustainable and Efficient Routes Study
• demand management and community programmes.
• public transport services, with approximately $400,000 to maintain current services.

Last updated: 6 October 2009