The start of construction of a new bridge on the Forgotten World Highway, east of Stratford, marks a milestone in a package of roading projects the government says could boost economic activity in the area by up to $45 million.<\/p>\n
The Kahouri Stream Bridge project is part of a $30m investment in State Highway 43 which includes tarsealing T\u0101ng\u0101raku Gorge between Whangamomona and Tauramanui.<\/p>\n
Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan, who attended the sod-turning ceremony, said the roading projects would boost tourism and create new jobs in the area.<\/p>\n
“Our regions are the backbone of Aotearoa and it’s exciting to see the Kahouri Stream Bridge project get underway in such a picturesque part of the country,” Allan said.<\/p>\n
“The Forgotten World Highway is not only an iconic tourist route, but also an important link for mana whenua, local communities, and businesses.<\/p>\n
“The bridge is part of a $30m investment by the government towards improvements for the Forgotten World Highway that will attract more tourists to the area and boost economic activity by an estimated $35 to $45m, helping to create new jobs in the area.”<\/p>\n
New straighter alignments would be created approaching the bridge to reduce the risk of crashes, increasing safety for locals and visitors.<\/p>\n
Other works in the overall package of improvements included the sealing of the T\u0101ng\u0101raku Gorge, safety improvements and culvert replacements.<\/p>\n
“It’s estimated these improvements will bring 13,000 more visitors to Taranaki each year, and encourage more people to travel from Tongariro National Park through to Egmont National Park,” Allan said.<\/p>\n
The existing one-lane Kahouri Stream Bridge, built in 1908, would be repurposed as a historic walking and cycling route.<\/p>\n
The new bridge was expected to be complete by early 2024 and was expected to better accommodate increased traffic volumes and freight.<\/p>\n
Source RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The start of construction of a new bridge on the Forgotten World Highway, east of Stratford, marks a milestone in a package of roading projects the government says could boost economic activity in the area by up to $45 million. The Kahouri Stream Bridge project is part of a $30m investment in State Highway 43 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5523,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5521\/revisions\/5523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}