The New Zealand Transport Agency is to spend a record $8.7 billion on transport infrastructure over the next three years.
The government agency says the funding for its three-year national land transport programme is a 17% increase on investment over the previous three-year period.
It aims to improve efficiency in public transport, ease congestion, upgrade important freight and tourism routes and improve safety.
The plan includes $899 million for public transport, $4.5 billion for the state highways network and $1.9 billion for other roads.
The Transport Agency will focus on completing seven "roads of national significance".
They are: Puhoi to Wellsford, completing the Auckland Western Ring Route, the Auckland Victoria Park bottleneck, the Waikato Expressway, the Tauranga Eastern Corridor, the northern corridor between Wellington and Levin, and the Christchurch motorway projects.
The Automobile Association says the Transport Agency's programme well-balanced and will boost productivity and efficiency.
But the Green Party believes the agency should spend less on roads and more on public transport infrastructure, as more people are expected to start using it.
MP Keith Locke says the agency's programme only assumes low rates of public transport use.
Waikato Expressway 'on track'
The Waikato Regional Council says the $300 million allocated to the Waikato Expressway on Thursday means completing the project within 10 years remains a realistic aim.
The expressway will eventually see a four-lane highway between Auckland and Cambridge.
Waikato Regional Transport Committee chair Norm Barker says the funding recognises the importance of the route to the economy.
Mr Barker says development of the remaining stretches of the expressway can now be carried out, including design work and land purchases.
He says road safety on one of New Zealand's busiest stretches of road will also improve once the expressway is completed.
The three-year transport funding plan for Waikato totals $938 million and includes money for the Kopu Bridge, near Thames, the Taupo Eastern Arterial route and roading projects in Hamilton.
Slap in face for Rodney - mayor
The mayor of Rodney District, north of Auckland, says she is bewildered by the Government's decision not include its showcase highway project in its three-year funding plan.
Penny Webster says her council expected the Government would pay more than half of the $216 million cost of the proposed link between the Whangaparaoa Pensinsula and State Highway 1.
The project had been proposed as a joint venture between the public and private sector.
Mrs Webster says communication between her council and the Government had been positive and she says the decision is a slap in the face for the local community.
