Report from RNZ
Waka Kotahi the NZ Transport Agency has been making exaggerated claims about how ‘green’ its highways are. It wrongly claims online that the Transmission Gully motorway and three other big highways are independently, internationally certified for sustainability when they have not been.
This has come to light amid investigations into the highway’s impacts on fish, streams and the Porirua Harbour.
During construction, the project incurred over $100,000 in fines for scores of environmental breaches, as well as costing almost $7 million for environmental monitoring by the regional council.
The transport agency’s website carries the statement: “Transmission Gully will be the first motorway constructed in New Zealand to achieve Greenroads silver certification.”
This was “the hope” a few years ago, but instead the motorway got a lesser silver pilot rating, which was “significant”, the agency has now told RNZ.
The other three highways, Peka Peka to Ōtaki, Baylink in Tauranga and the Auckland northern corridor improvement, have also been touted on its website as “contractually required” to get assessed through to “final certification” by US certifier Greenroads. They also will not get certification.
Instead, they had swapped into using “an alternate sustainability framework” developed by Waka Kotahi itself, that aligned with a government-led programme, the agency said on Monday.
The new framework is not independent.
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