LETTER
Phil Hunt - 4 months ago
Gisborne does not need a heavy truck by-pass. A large proportion of heavy truck movement is logs. Trucks from the north have no alternative than Wainui Road, but from the south and west logs could stockpiled/transhipped at the old Matawhero railway station site and railed to the port in trains of 20 to 30 wagons.
This would be much cheaper than building a new road, and would lower the cost of repairing the town roads which ratepayers cover. As it is, road transport does not pay the full cost of using the roads as RUCs are kept artificially low because of the all-powerful Road Transport Forum. Under National they had full rein, so let's hope with the present coalition Government more attention could be paid to taking freight off road to rail where appropriate.