AF8 science lead Dr Thomas Robinson, welcomed yesterday’s Budget announcement of $400 million earmarked to make New Zealand’s road network more resilient in the face of environmental disaster.
Dr Robinson said he welcomed investment in resilience, with small populations in mountainous regions vulnerable to being isolated, causing issues with resource supply, if road networks were damaged.
‘‘We work on a just-in-time freight service, and it means we have very little resilience, and very little in the way of fall-back options.
‘‘It’s also a key tourist route, so if it happens at the wrong time of year you could have large numbers of tourists trapped and isolated, which is a further drain on resources and it makes evacuating them very tricky,’’ he said.
AF8 conducts scientific modelling, co-ordinated response planning and community engagement, with the aim of building to the next Alpine Fault earthquake.
Its website says there is a 75% probability of an Alpine Fault earthquake happening in the next 50 years, and a four-out-of-five chance that it will be a magnitude-8-plus event.
Making the regions’ roads less likely to be disrupted ‘‘enhances our resilience’’, Dr Robinson said.
Federated Farmers also welcomed the government investment.
Federated Farmers infrastructure spokesman Mark Hooper said the organisation had been advocating for more funding for rural roads and key regional freight and access routes.
The money the government had made available to address drainage, slope stabilisation and rockfall protection at known weak spots was ‘‘in line with the truism that ‘a stitch in time, saves nine’.’’
‘‘Building in better resilience ahead of the next flood or storm makes sense,’’ he said.
Still, the group warned if experience showed a route or piece of public infrastructure continued to be ‘‘highly vulnerable to weather events’’, investigation and funding of alternatives would be required.
Announcing the funding, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the Budget ‘‘invests in stronger infrastructure, better hazard information, smarter emergency management systems and improved financial preparedness’’.
Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the $400 million had been set aside for state highway resilience projects to help keep critical routes open during and after severe weather events.
‘‘We know where many of the weak points on the network are.
‘‘This investment allows us to strengthen them before roads fail, rather than repeatedly paying to rebuild them afterwards,’’ Mr Bishop said.
Mr Bishop identified four resilience improvement projects in the North Island and five in the South Island which sought to mitigate the impact of an environmental disaster.
Resilience improvements in Otago were focused on State Highway 6, with resilience improvements to be made between Cromwell and Frankton, between Frankton and Kingston, and between Haast and Hāwea.
