Prime Minister's 'coaching conversation' with NZTA boss over road project delivery

The prime minister has had a "coaching conversation" with the Transport Agency's boss over a major roading project's cost and timeframe.On Monday Christopher Luxon visited the site of what will be a new interchange on the 16km four-lane Cambridge to Piarere Expressway - a Road of National Significance in Waikato.It's set to take five years to build and cost $1.8 billion, which Luxon questioned considering it would be a "bog standard" road.Transport Agency chief executive Brett Gliddon told Luxon there had been some challenges with environmental constraints, and the project's timeframe was dictated by the necessary earthworks.Five years was a "high level" projection and contractors had been challenged to bring it down, Gliddon said."We're putting real pressure on them to think outside the box."Luxon acknowledged NZTA had improved in the last three years, but there was more work to do."If we've got lizards and stuff we need to deal with, we ain't gonna take five years to deal with that," he said."I don't understand, for a standard road like this … how do I not get this job finished in 18 months?"Luxon said Israelis and Canadians were capable of it."There must be a better way we can do it, it's a straight up project ... go 24/7, get the lights up, get the heaters going," he said, asking whether rules needed to be changed there to allow round the clock work."I don't wanna talk about it any more, I wanna get it done."Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.RNZ / NATHAN MCKINNONLuxon challenged NZTA to complete it in 18 months.Gliddon told RNZ that would be "a bit ambitious" but he would do his best.He said Luxon's comments were "not unfair ... he's right, we ultimately want to deliver infrastructure faster".The conversation was cordial - "Brett's one of my favourite guys," Luxon said - but he was clear he wanted improvement on five years and $1.8b.RNZ later put to Luxon he was critical of NZTA."I wouldn't call it critical," he said."If you heard me talking - I hope you did hear me talking - it's actually me pushing the system to make sure the system is delivering great value and doing what it can do to make sure projects are getting done well and done faster."Luxon said it was his job to challenge officials."That's what we call a coaching conversation."Luxon added that Gliddon was doing an exceptional job, and NZTA had improved its value for money over the past three years.Transport Minister Chris Bishop - who was standing next to Luxon during Monday's press conference - pointed to the Waikare Gorge realignment project between Wairoa and Napier where construction started just over a week ago."[It's] a very important bridge in the East Coast ... came in something like $50 million under budget," he said.Luxon said it was important to challenge NZTA on behalf of taxpayers because New Zealand was in the top 10 percent of countries for infrastructure spending.