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Forest & Bird is urging the Government to reconsider the proposed Brynderwyn highway replacement, warning the route poses major landslide risks and could cause significant harm to threatened native wildlife.
The organisation said independent ecological assessments show the preferred route, on the south side of the Brynderwyns, would cut through very steep old-growth native forest.
This habitat supports critically threatened pekapeka long-tailed bats, rare pepeketua Hochstetter’s frogs, copper skinks, kauri snails and glow worms.
Dean Baigent-Mercer, Forest & Bird’s Northland regional conservation manager, said the Government’s Fast-track process has prevented proper public scrutiny of a project that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
“It’s one thing to have a Fast-track process, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of transparency and robust environmental scrutiny,” he said.
“The public deserves assurance that infrastructure this expensive protects Northland’s precious native wildlife rather than imperilling it.”
Baigent-Mercer said the issue is not whether a new route is needed, but whether the chosen route is the right one.
“The whole point of the new highway was to avoid the Brynderwyn hills after Cyclone Gabrielle caused the road to be closed due to severe slips. But the route being fast tracked would run not far downhill from the existing State Highway 1 over the same geology already known for ongoing landslides.
“This proposal appears to lock taxpayers into a multi-billion-dollar project that isn’t climate resilient and carries major and known ongoing geological risks – as revealed in NZ Transport Agency’s own application.”
NZ Transport Agency’s Fast-track application acknowledges “major geotechnical risks”, widespread landslides and slope instability, and notes construction could require ongoing problem-solving and experimenting during construction.
“Major geotechnical risks are a serious red flag for this project,” said Mr Baigent-Mercer.
“If the existing road has been plagued by instability, it’s fair to ask why taxpayers should fund a hugely expensive new highway through similarly challenging terrain when the public are expecting the new highway to completely avoid all the problems we already experience over the Brynderwyns.”
