Councils say they can't afford to fix cyclone damaged roads
Councils say they can't afford to fix cyclone damaged roads
Hawke's Bay and East Coast councils say they can't afford to fix the cyclone-damaged roading networks in their regions.
Councils in cyclone-hit regions staring down a decade-long roading recovery say they simply cannot afford it.
Emphasis mine.
The duration of the remedial works is the problem more than the cost.
If it takes a decade to recover from an event that is likely to reoccurr more frequently then it's a losing game.
It's a shame that local and central government in NZ just can't/won't maintain infrastructure.
We can afford it, we've just decided as a country that landlord taxcuts and untaxed capital gains are more important.
Capitalism is a funnel.
And specifically for roads, light vehicles (cars, utes) can only subsidise the damage heavy freight does so much before folks start to notice.
It projected the regions affected by Cyclones Gabrielle and Hale, and the Auckland anniversary floods, needed another 17,500 workers at what it believed would be the peak of the rebuild effort - the end of next year.
I see this in my industry also, I am involved in a major project, there are other major projects around. I don't see where we are going to get the electrical trade staff to cover the major projects that are already going ahead, let alone the maintenance staff to keep everything running and the minor projects around the region.