East Coast councils unite to push for urgent SH2 resilience investment

22 May 2026

A coalition of East Coast district and regional council leaders say they will continue lobbying central government for urgent resilience investment into State Highway 2 following a high-level meeting with Transport Minister Chris Bishop on Wednesday 20 May.

The meeting followed a formal joint letter sent to the Minister on 10 April by Gisborne District Council, Ōpōtiki District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, warning that State Highway 2 through the East Coast corridor was becoming a “national corridor failure requiring immediate attention”.

The councils say the corridor, including north through the Waioweka Gorge and south to Hawke’s Bay, is a nationally significant freight and lifeline route that is repeatedly being disrupted by slips, flooding, closures, geotechnical instability and ongoing recovery works.

The joint proposition calls on the Government for:

  • Formal recognition of SH2 East Coast as nationally significant economic and lifeline infrastructure.
  • Prioritisation of resilience and reliability outcomes through future Government Policy Statements and National Land Transport Plans.
  • Accelerated funding pathways for long-term resilience works.
  • Stronger weighting of single-point-of-failure risks and lack of alternative routes within national investment models.

In the meeting with Minister Bishop, Mayor Stoltz reinforced the need for the Government to move beyond a reactive recovery model and toward long-term resilience and reliability investment across the East Coast corridor.

“For Tairāwhiti, State Highway 2 is not just another road. It is our lifeline for freight, health services, emergency response, tourism, business confidence and the everyday movement of our people,” says Mayor Stoltz.

“When SH2 fails, our communities are isolated, costs increase and the impacts are felt well beyond our region.

“We are asking Government to move from repeated recovery to long-term resilience. This corridor needs practical investment that keeps people, goods and services moving and recognises the national value of the East Coast.”

The joint advocacy effort has brought together mayors, regional council chairs, regional transport chairs and chief executives from across Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay.

The councils say the issue is no longer simply a local transport matter. Repeated disruptions across the corridor have resulted in freight detours of up to 200 kilometres, additional travel times of up to three hours, multiple weeks of restricted access, and an estimated economic exposure of approximately $8 million per day during major closure periods.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Chair Sophie Siers said SH2 is a vital economic and social link for communities across Hawke’s Bay.

“We are partnering with neighbouring councils to drive further government investment into SH2 resilience.”

The regional coalition says the impacts are felt across freight movement, export productivity, tourism, emergency response capability, workforce mobility and long-term business confidence.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Chair Matemoana McDonald says the repeated disruption to SH2 shows how connected the regions are, and how vulnerable communities and businesses become when the corridor is unreliable.

“The Waioweka Gorge is a critical link between our regions. When it is closed or restricted, the impacts are felt across freight, tourism, emergency response and everyday travel.

“This is not just a local road issue. It is a shared regional resilience issue that needs national recognition and long-term investment.”

The councils also reiterated concerns that current national transport investment settings continue to disadvantage regions with limited alternative routes and high lifeline dependency.

The coalition says improving the long-term resilience of State Highway 2 will require a coordinated corridor-wide approach involving central government, NZTA, local government, iwi partners and freight stakeholders.

Minister Bishop has acknowledged the importance of SH2 resilience and indicated further improvements will be considered through upcoming national transport investment processes, but leaders emphasise that the work is far from over.

“The regions have come together because this corridor matters not only to our communities, but to national productivity, freight reliability and economic resilience,” says Mayor Stoltz.

“This is coordinated regional advocacy backed by evidence, data and lived experience from communities and businesses dealing with repeated disruption.

“We appreciated the opportunity to meet directly with the Minister and discuss the challenges facing the corridor. The discussions will continue, and councils will continue to strongly advocate for practical resilience investment and a clearer long-term funding pathway.”

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