The article from yesterday on KC News here gives the reasoning — basically the $22–$29 million cost isn’t justified by the number of people it will benefit. Government decisions are always going to be steered by what will do the most good for the greatest number of people.

We were told at the meeting on the Main Road back in November that the government has reduced the NZTA’s general roading budget in favour of specific projects, particularly around Auckland.

The supplied aerial picture shows some of the houses of Peka Peka — there is a larger number of them near the beach and a small group on the hill to the left, but the number overall isn’t great in the scheme of things.

That could and probably will change in the next decade or so, however, as more of the pastoral land between Waikanae and Peka Peka gets covered in subdivisions (not something we want to see, but inevitable if the country’s population keeps growing).

It can be said that elected representatives should have done more to have an interchange included in the original plans when it wouldn’t have cost too much: retrofitting improvements will always cost more. But as always, we just have to look at the best way of coping with bad decisions of the past.